Metroid: Endgame
by Enterprise F
Summary: After rescuing a ship and its crew from the Space Pirates, Samus Aran has been tasked with infiltrating the Earth and stopping Cyrus once and for all.  However, the Space Pirates have also come to Earth, and they have a surprise in store for the hunter...
1. Chapter 1

Legal Disclaimer: Metroid is copyright Nintendo. I do not own it, Nintendo does. It and all of its characters are the property of Nintendo and their respective creators. In addition, characters from the Star Fox, F-Zero, and Pokémon franchises also appear in this story and play an important role. I do not own any of them them, either; Nintendo does. They are all copyright Nintendo and their respective creators.

Metroid: Endgame

Chapter 1:

_It has been one year since the beginning of the Galactic Federation Civil War. In that year, numerous battles have been conducted across the galaxy between the forces of Earth and its allies, also called the Galactic Federation in Exile, and the Galactic Federation proper, led by Chairman Cyrus, former Vice-Chairman of Elric, and the leader of Team Galactic, a criminal organization based in the Sinnoh Region of Japan on Earth. Cyrus seeks to accomplish what he has previously twice failed to do, destroy the Earth, and the rest of the universe, and create a new universe: one without emotion and spirit and is using the Galactic Federation to help carry out his ambitions. With his charisma, as well as the hatred that many members of the Federation had towards Earth for abruptly ceasing its assistance of the survivors of Daiban, the previous capital of the Galactic Federation before its destruction, after Earth discovered Elric using the tragedy to send in secret police infiltrators to the planet, Cyrus had little difficulty rousing the worlds of the then Galactic Federation against Earth and its allies, even to the point where they voluntarily allowed the Federation to change from its previous republic-like government to a government more reminiscent of a Galactic Empire. The Federation assembled a massive fleet to assist in the "retaking" of Earth and the other worlds that defected from the corrupt Federation. Even with the majority of the official Galactic Federation Starfleet having sided with Earth and the Galactic Federation in Exile, the so-called "Galactic Federation" has had little difficulty assembling a fleet that dwarfs the fleet of the Federation in Exile. Only the superior technology and capability of the ships in the Federation in Exile's fleet have allowed it to hold its own against its vastly numerically superior foe._

_To make matters worse, Cyrus has managed to enlist the help of not only the Lylat System, along with the Star Fox Team and its squadron of highly advanced and powerful Arwing starfighters, but also the ancient races of the N'Kren and the Ylla. With their assistance, the Galactic Federation has already begun to field Techno Knights and Techno Lords, power armored soldiers with the ability to fly, both in atmosphere and in space, and are equipped with armor that can shrug off almost anything short of capital ship-grade weapons and also carries weapons equivalent to light anti-capital ship grade weaponry. With more than a hundred thousand worlds having sided with the Galactic Federation, the Federation in Exile has little hope, but yet, hope does remain, for Cyrus has but one target: Earth. And all of his thought has been bent towards getting to Earth to accomplish his goal._

_For the better part of six months, Earth has endured wave after wave of Federation attacks. Countless soldiers on both sides have died, but in the end, three weeks ago, the Galactic Federation managed to gain orbital superiority over the Earth and managed to capture Earth's capital, Washington D.C., as well as New York City and its Radio Tower. However, not all hope is lost, for Cyrus's forces are having difficulty in taking Japan as well as the Unova Region in America. It is somewhere in one of these two areas that Cyrus will find what he needs in order to bring about his plan of remaking the universe with himself as its god and it is only a matter of time before these areas will be conquered. However, since those regions contain areas and possibly artifacts that are vital to Cyrus's plans, he has been prevented from utilizing orbital bombardment upon those areas, allowing the forces of Earth to assemble strong defenses in those two regions. Still, even with the strong defenses present, it is still only a matter of time before those regions will fall to the vastly superior numbers of Federation troops and are captured._

_As for other worlds, Aether, Aliehs III and Corella 5 have not been spared from attack, either, though the attacks on those worlds were mainly designed to prevent ships from reinforcing Earth's defense and were repulsed successfully with relatively minimal losses._

_With the war truly heating up with the attacks on Earth and other important worlds in the Federation in Exile, the need for military ships have diverted such ships from their normal mission of escorting convoys, both civilian and military, leaving them quite vulnerable to Space Pirate, a force that has taken advantage of the fighting and the focus towards Earth and Cyrus, attack. As such, it has fallen to bounty hunters to protect such convoys. However, as several worlds have been quick to notice, the Space Pirates have usually attacked convoys belonging to the Galactic Federation in Exile and deliberately avoided attacking any Galactic Federation convoy. As such, the Federation in Exile has hired bounty hunter Samus Aran to protect civilian convoys from Space Pirate attack. A few hours ago, Samus Aran received a distress signal from a convoy that was supposed to have been protected by two bounty hunters and four Federation starfighters and has gone to investigate._

Samus Aran's new gunship exited subspace near the last known coordinates of the convoy she had come to assist. As her ship exited the subspace window, the bounty hunter immediately began to scan the surrounding area. A three dimensional holographic display soon appeared in front of a screen in front of her. Even before the display appeared, she could tell that little, if anything, was left of the convoy, for her pitch black gunship quickly had to swerve to the left to avoid a large piece of metallic debris, likely from one of the ships in the convoy. Her ship's cockpit was far more cramped than the cockpits of her previous gunships, if this ship could even qualify as a gunship. It had started its life as a prototype stealth fighter/attack spacecraft with warp drive that was capable of matching the speeds of her previous gunships, and an atmospheric top speed that exceeded almost any other starfighter currently in production. It had only been when the military had viewed that this design of ship was too expensive for mass production that Samus was able to get her hands on the ship. It was shaped similarly to an old Earth reconnaissance aircraft known as an SR-71 Blackbird, though its neck was noticeably shorter than the Blackbird's. The only part of this "gunship" that was similar to her other gunships was the fact that the canopy somewhat resembled the design of her Power Suit's helmet, though, the resemblance was much less noticeable than it was on her other ships. Much like her previous combat gunship, this gunship was heavily armed with two forward firing pulse energy cannons, as well as deployable dorsal and ventral point defense energy turrets, and also a wide assortment of missiles from anti-starfighter missiles to anti-capital ship grade matter-antimatter Nova Missiles.

The bounty hunter focused on the holographic display in front of her and looked down at her sensor console. So far, there were few escape pods that had been ejected from the civilian starships. As she continued to scan the area, she found the wreckage of what looked to be a mantis-shaped Space Pirate starfighter. She grimaced. So the Space Pirates were behind this attack. Ever since the Galactic Federation Civil War had begun, the Space Pirates had taken advantage of the opportunity and begun conducting raids on numerous convoys and worlds. With the militaries of both the Federation and the Federation in Exile focusing all of their resources on fighting this war, many worlds and civilian convoys had been left relatively lightly defended. From the initial reports that she had received, this convoy had been protected by two bounty hunters named Ixis and Fasome, both of which had highly powerful gunships that were a match for Samus's current gunship, and four Federation in Exile Stilettos. She remembered that Ixis and Fasome were powerful bounty hunters that were noted for not only being powerful foot soldiers, but also highly skilled pilots whose skills were renowned for being on a par with Fox McCloud and Falco Lombardi's of the Star Fox Team. They had also been noticeable participants in the Federation Civil War on the side of the Galactic Federation in Exile. They, along with Samus, had been among the only bounty hunters that had sided with the Federation in Exile. Their loss would hurt, especially given the number of powerful bounty hunters that were currently being employed by the "official" Galactic Federation.

As Samus continued through the debris field, soon saw more debris from several Space Pirate starfighters and two Space Pirate Armored Tactical Carriers drift by her cockpit, along with a few Space Pirate Trooper and Kihunter bodies, prompting her to smile. She knew that they would not go down without a fight. Even though civilian ships were often armed, they often did not carry significant amounts of weaponry. They would be quickly overwhelmed by a Space Pirate assault force. As she got deeper into the field, though, she found more wreckage from the Space Pirates than she had initially expected. While she soon saw the debris of both Ixis and Fasome's ships, she noticed the wreckage of several Space Pirate boarding pods as well. This was a costly raid for the Space Pirates. She was surprised that the Space Pirates would continue with such a raid given the damage they had taken. From what she knew, the Space Pirates could not afford to sustain such losses on something as small as a raid. At least, she _thought_ they could not afford such losses. If the raiders were merely cloned Zebesians, the story may have been different, but she had seen Urtragian Space Pirate bodies drifting through space as she entered the debris field.

Samus gave a sigh as she continued through the space graveyard. She had been too late. The convoy had been completely destroyed, and while it had not gone down alone, that would be little comfort to the families of the people who were killed in the Space Pirate raid. She was about to open a channel and contact Admiral Dane, informing him of the convoy's destruction, when an alert chime sounded. She soon saw her sensor screen flashing blue and she pushed a single button and the holographic sensor display soon zoomed in towards a small sector of space a few million kilometers away from her current position. Once the display zeroed in on the position, she found that a group of civilian starships had survived the attack. She immediately powered her ship's engines and made her way towards the ships. As she got closer, she saw sixteen red blips representing Space Pirate starfighters and bombers surrounding the largest of the civilian ships, along with two larger red dots, likely representing troop transports. The fighters and bombers soon began to flit about the ship, indicating that they were performing attack runs on the civilian vessel. Her sensors soon identified the civilian ship as the _U.S.S. Crab Cake 1_, an Earth freighter. As she focused in on the _Crab Cake 1_, her sensors indicated that several boarding pods were attached to its hull. The Space Pirates were looking for something onboard the vessel. She soon focused on the other surviving vessels, one a cruise liner, the _Adventure in the Stars_, and a transport, the _U.S.S._ _Exeter_. Space Pirate Assault ATCs and other transports were hovering near the cruise liner, with two of them having been attached to the vessel. After a few seconds, the ships attached to the civilian starship detached themselves and fled into warp. Two seconds after they disappeared, the _Adventure in the Stars_ disappeared from sensors. Samus glanced out her cockpit window and saw a subspace window promptly vanish. The Space Pirates had stolen the ship, itself. That made little sense as a cruise liner was unarmed in any way and carried no supplies of any real value, save for stores of antimatter and possibly Afloraltite, which assisted in controlling the matter-antimatter reactions in the reactors. Then, Samus began to worry, for the _Adventure in the Stars_ was a star liner that often had thousands of passengers going on star cruises. She then said a silent prayer for the safety of the passengers and crew of the captured space linter.

Soon, the _Exeter_ also disappeared from Samus's sensors. This time, she witnessed a brief flash in the distance. _No_, she thought, staring at the floor of her ship's cockpit. In the space of a few seconds, one ship had been captured with a second being destroyed. Only the _Crab Cake 1_ was left. The only consolation was that the transport had by far the fewest people onboard, and there was still the chance that the Pirates had captured its passengers and crew, rather than kill them. She then focused on the _Crab Cake 1_. So far, it appeared as if the Space Pirates were only beginning the attack on the vessel after having disabled its warp drive. Samus soon pushed the engines to their full power and accelerated towards the freighter and the Space Pirate assault force.

It did not take long for her to reach the scene of the battle. Four needle-shaped Space Pirate starfighters were making their second attack run on the _Crab Cake 1_ while the other fighters were covering them. The freighter was already unarmed and with its armed escorts having been destroyed, the Space Pirates felt as if they had all day to enjoy this raid. Things changed for them once Samus locked onto the four attacking starfighters from over a thousand kilometers away and unleashed a cluster anti-starfighter missile from her internal weapons bay. The missile streaked from the opening and the Space Pirate fighters did not know what to make of the missile at first. They soon realized the danger as it sped towards the leader of the four attacking starfighters and split off into four smaller missiles. Each of the smaller missiles zeroed in on each of the attacking fighters and raced towards them at blistering speeds. In less than a second, four bright flashes almost simultaneously appeared off in the distance. Four red blips disappeared from her holographic display. The bounty hunter grinned: four down, twelve to go.

Samus soon focused on the bombers, but was quickly reminded of the threat posed by the fighters as the Space Pirate fighters soon appeared within visual range of her ship and began unleashing a hail of blue energy fire at her ship. One of the energy bolts managed to strike her ship and a field of bluish energy spread around the bow of the ship as an energy bolt splashed against its shields. The ship shuddered lightly from the impact and Samus quickly checked her systems and found that the shields were down to only ninety-six percent. The bounty hunter quickly retaliated by deploying her ship's twin dorsal and ventral point-defense energy cannons, which began to spew a series of rapid fired scarlet energy pulses at the attacking starfighters. Two scarlet energy pulses burned through the hulls of one of the fighters, perforating its fuel tank, causing it to explode in a magnificent display of fire and glowing metal. The energy cannons soon swept energy fire over a second starfighter, shattering said fighter with only a couple hits. As the point-defense energy cannons were dealing with the fighters that were outside of Samus's primary forward firing arc, she took shots from her primary energy cannons on fighters that wandered in front of her ship. One such fighter had done so and its pilot did not have time to realize his mistake as Samus unleashed two scarlet energy pulses upon the fighter from her forward cannons. The twin energy pulses instantly vaporized the needle-shaped starfighter, leaving her to focus on the ray-shaped bombers that had already breached the shields of the freighter.

Allowing the automated cannons to deal with the attacking starfighters, Samus focused on dealing with the bombers and Space Pirate ATCs and Assault Skiffs. She quickly readied her missiles and prepared to launch a second cluster anti-starfighter missile, and heavier missiles designed for dealing with transports and freighters. Once the targeting data was entered into her computer, her ship almost instantly locked onto the four ray-shaped bombers. Once she was locked on, the bounty hunter let fly with the anti-starfighter cluster missile. The missile rocketed towards the bombers and, just as with the previous attacking starfighters, once it was close to their initial target, it split into four separate warheads and each warhead zeroed in on its target. Once again, four bright flashes lit up space, clearly indicating the destruction of the four bombers. As the missiles had traveled to their targets, more Space Pirate fighters had been destroyed by the automated defense cannons of Samus's gunship. Once the bombers had been destroyed, the Samus turned her attention back to the attacking fighters, of which only one remained. That one Space Pirate fighter decided to try to collide with Samus's gunship in order to take it down with him. His ramming attempt was quickly picked up by both Samus and the ship's computer, though, and the gunship's point defense cannons destroyed him before he could even begin to make the run.

Once the battle was over, she checked on her ship's condition. So far, her shields were only down to eighty-eight percent. Checking her sensors once more, she found that, aside from the Space Pirate ATCs, there were no further Space Pirate vessels in the area. As she went to approach the Space Pirates, though, her sensors showed that the ATCs were moving towards the freighter, but no longer firing on the ship. Almost instantly, Samus realized that the Space Pirates were going to board the vessel. Still, she wondered if that was their true intention, for the ship they were boarding was over four hundred meters in length. After a few more seconds, she arrived at the _Crab Cake 1_ and found the four Space Pirate ATCs attached to its hull.

She then went to scan the interior of the ship and, sure enough, there were numerous Space Pirate life signs onboard, in addition to the two hundred crewmembers of the freighter. For a moment, she was tempted to destroy the hyper-light capable ATCs to strand the Pirates on the freighter, but she soon decided against it, for destroying the troop carriers would likely only cause the Pirates to make a mad dash to destroy the freighter and kill everyone onboard. As such, she activated her ship's cloaking device, rendering it invisible to both sensors and the naked eye, and slowly approached the freighter. She quickly scanned the freighter to see where she could latch onto the hull and board the ship away from any of its crew and where she would not risk inflicting too much damage to the hull of the frigate, itself. She soon found that she would not have to risk breaching the hull of the freighter, for the emergency hangar bay was already open. She quickly banked her ship to the left and took it into the emergency hangar bay. She slowly and carefully eased her ship into the hangar bay, making certain that the bay would actually be large enough to house her ship. Once inside the tight fitting hangar bay, she maneuvered her ship so that it was pointing towards he exit. She then eased the ship down to the floor of the bay. Soon, the ship began its small descent and she deployed the ship's landing gear. A shudder vibrated throughout the ship as her ship touched down on the floor of the hangar bay.

Once her ship had touched down, the door in the back of the cockpit a few feet away from her opened. The seat slid back until it had cleared the door. Once she was through the door, she immediately undid her seat restraints and got out of her seat. The rear quarters of her ship was much more cramped than the quarters of her previous gunships, mainly due to the fact that her current starship had started its life as a fighter. Before going over to the release for the lower hatch, she activated her new Power Suit. A golden light emanated from Samus's suit and immediately, the more than six foot tall woman in a white sleeveless bodysuit that strongly resembled a white Zero Suit, covering her from her neck to her ankles was replaced with a warrior in orange, and red armor. Unlike her original Power Suit and its upgrades, though, her current Power Suit was much more reminiscent of her Fusion Suit in its appearance. Its armor was thinner, though just as strong, if not stronger, than the armor of her previous Gravity Suit. In addition, her suit also had enhanced shielding that was stronger than the shielding of any of her previous suits. Not only that, though, she also had the Varia and Gravity upgrades built right into this suit. In addition, she also had her full array of beams: Power, Ice, Wave, and Plasma built into its arm cannon, along with her Missile launcher. The suit also came with a full loadout of two hundred and fifty missiles, along with the ability to charge them into Super Missiles, at the cost of five normal missiles per Super Missile, as well as the Charge Beam combos, as well as a full supply of Power Bombs. Finally, her suit had its other upgrades, the Speed Booster and Shinespark, the Space Jump and Screw Attack, the Grapple Beam, which also combined the abilities of the Grapple Beam, Grapple Lasso, and the Grapple Voltage all in one; as well as her various visors: the standard Combat Visor, Scan Visor, X-Ray Visor, which also carried over some aspects from her previous Thermal Visor, and the Command Visor, which allowed her to control her gunship remotely, built into the suit itself. Finally, she checked on her Energy Tanks and found that all of her twenty Energy Tanks were functioning normally.

Once she had taken stock of herself, she went over to the release for the bottom hatch of her starship and pushed the button. Immediately, a small round hatch opened and Samus stepped jumped down through the small hole. Upon emerging from her ship, she proceeded to search for a computer that she could interface with so as to get the map for the freighter. When she saw that there was no computer for her to link to, she then searched for the entrance hangar bay exit. She quickly found it and went up towards the door. Since this was a civilian freighter, there was no shield over the door, only blue lines of light. As soon as she approached the door, the metallic doors slid open, granting her access to the corridor.

Samus stepped through the door and found herself in a dark corridor. So far, it seemed as if there had been no signs of fighting in this area. Not wasting any time, she made her way forward, scanning the wall to see if there was any console that she could access in order for her to download a map to the area. Not too far into her walk, she found a computer console along the right wall of the corridor. She quickly went over to it and searched for an interface terminal. Much to her surprise, she found a plug that fit her arm cannon perfectly. She inserted her arm cannon into the plug and began to download the data to her suit. The images of maps, schematics, and other information flashed across her visor as she downloaded all of the data on the _Crab Cake 1_. She found that the ship was a heavy freighter and only carried a crew of about twenty. They would be no match for the Space Pirate attackers. The freighter's internal sensors also indicated that there were twenty Space Pirates onboard, though they did not specify what kind of Pirates they were. She then activated the map spotted her current location onboard the ship. She quickly found that she had a long way to go before she would reach the bridge of the ship, but that the corridor she was currently occupying would take her straight to the bridge. She checked her map again and soon found red dots representing the last known locations of the Space Pirates onboard the ship appear on the map. Even better, for her, was the fact that they were all either in this corridor, or were still on the bridge. She could clear this ship out pretty easily. She then checked the information on the cargo bays and found that they were currently locked, likely due to the fact that the Space Pirates had breached the ship's hull. Fortunately, none of the hull breaches were near any of the cargo bays, so the Space Pirates had not yet managed to make off with any of the ship's cargo just yet.

After she had downloaded the ship's information to her suit, she proceeded to quickly make her way down the corridor. She suspected that most of the crew would be on the bridge and if there were Pirates on the bridge, they would likely soon start killing the crew if they were not cooperating with them, if they had not already started doing so. After a few moments, Samus heard the faint sound of voices coming a ways off from down the corridor. Her translation software quickly activated and she was now able to understand the alien conversation. "Man, did you hear that sensors spotted a new ship enter the region?" one of the voices asked. It was obvious to Samus that the voice belonged to a Zebesian Space Pirate.

"Yeah," a second voice replied. Again, this one also belonged to a Zebesian. Samus quickly switched to her Plasma Beam, knowing that it would be more than sufficient to kill a standard Zebesian Space Pirate in a single uncharged shot. Soon, the second voice spoke again, "Some of the others are sayin' that the ship belongs to the Hunter."

"The Hunter?" the first Zebesian blurted. "No way! That ship didn't have any of the characteristics that the Hunter's other ships had. Its cockpit didn't look like her helmet."

"Yeah, well, I just go by what I hear," the second Zebesian responded. "And it's not like it would be out of the realm of possibility for her to show up here, right? The Federation in Exile has been hiring bounty hunters to guard convoys ever since the Federation launched its assault on Earth. And this convoy's bound to have somethin' of importance, besides a ship great number of passengers that we can use to swell our ranks with, once they've been reprogrammed and all."

"You're right about that," the first Zebesian said. "Two famous bounty hunters were guardin' this convoy…"

"Before we blew 'em ta hell," the second Zebesian finished mockingly. Both of the Space Pirates gave a laugh.

"Yeah," the first one agreed. "And to think they went down so quickly. The Federation fighters provided greater resistance. Those two bounty hunters got killed off in the initial ambush."

"Yeah, and they were supposed to be pretty good pilots, too," the second Zebesian laughed. "They didn't look so good when they were cryin' as they were blasted into one of the civilian transports, destroying it and takin' out a ton of the civilians they were supposed ta be protectin'."

As the Pirates continued to talk, Samus seethed. She could not stand listening to them speak ill of the dead the way they were. She silently approached them and once they were within range, she fired down the corridor, her orange blast of plasma lighting the entire corridor as it instantly crossed the distance from Samus's arm cannon to the second Zebesian. The blast blew through the Zebesian's torso in one shot and emerged out the back to continue on its way down the rest of the corridor. Had Samus been focused on the blast, she would have seen it sear off the right arm of another Zebesian down the corridor before eventually dissipating. The Zebesian cried out in shock and pain as the beam had taken off his arm, and his cries alerted the others to the fact that there was likely an intruder onboard. A look of utter shock and horror crossed the first Zebesian's face as the torso of his comrade practically disintegrated. He looked forward and for a fleeing instant, caught sight of the form of the Hunter before she fired a second Plasma Beam blast, annihilating the head and upper torso of the Zebesian. The rest of the body fell to the floor and remained motionless.

Samus quickly made her way down the corridor and found the crying and cursing Pirate who had lost his arm. She silenced the Pirate with a blast from her Power Beam, knowing now that the Plasma Beam was overkill for these weak Zebesians. She also quickly killed his companion before he could alert the others, himself. Still, it was too late. The rest of the Space Pirates onboard had been alerted to Samus's presence by the previous Pirate's cries. Soon, Samus saw a quartet of Urtragian Space Pirates approach. These were the normal rank and file Space Pirate Troopers, and the troopers that she was the most familiar with, having had many battles with them during the incidents on Tallon IV, Aether, the Phazon Crisis, and in the skirmish on Z-1A. The bounty hunter quickly switched to her Plasma Beam and began to charge it. Soon, a ball of red-orange energy formed at the end of her arm cannon and she then targeted the leader of the approaching Urtragians. She unleashed the ball of energy and it streaked right towards the Space Pirate. The plasma blast was more than powerful enough to take down the Pirate's shields and burn through his armor. The Space Pirate Trooper fell backwards with a large hole burned into his torso. The three remaining Space Pirates, though, wasted little time returning fire on Samus. As they did so, one of the Pirates took out a cone-shaped communicator, activated it, and shouted over the din, "Mission Leader Knash, come in! We've got an intruder onboard," he cried. "It's the Hunter!" That last part was screamed with an increased sense of desperation as Samus had already managed to kill one of his other comrades.

Back on the bridge of the _Crab Cake 1_, the Pirate leader in charge of the mission, an Elite Pirate named Knash, heard the frantic cries of one of his troopers sound in over the channel. Upon hearing, "It's the Hunter," his face turned ashen. He quickly heard a short cry given by the Pirate, along with the cries of several other Pirates before the comm line abruptly turned to static. This was the worst news that he could hear. He looked over at the crewmembers of the freighter huddled together in the corner. He then called four Advanced Shield Troopers to him. Once they arrived, he told them, "You four remain here and keep an eye on the prisoners." Turning to the other Pirates in the room, he called, "The rest of you, go out into the corridor and face down Samus. You have to kill her, no matter the cost!"

At the mention of Samus, there arose a murmur from the captives, as well as the other Space Pirates, most of whom were Zebesians. They merely stood there, talking to one another, making no move towards the corridor. Knash gritted his teeth. "Get a move on!" he roared. "If you don't go out there, _I'll_ kill you all for the Hunter!"

The threat of imminent death roused the Pirates and as the five Zebesians made their way into the corridor, leaving only the four Advanced Shield Troopers and the Elite Pirate on the bridge of the freighter. Once the others were in the corridor, he told two of the Shield Troopers, "You two, guard the door. Make sure that nothing gets through that door." Turning to the other two, he commanded, "You two stay with me. If the Hunter manages to get by them, we'll open up on her once she comes bursting through in a hail of energy and plasma fire."

The Advanced Shield Troopers nodded and then went to take their positions, and await the inevitable arrival of Samus Aran.

Back in the corridor, Samus rushed past the burned corpses of the first wave of Pirates and quickly charged towards the bridge. After twenty seconds or so of non-stop running, activating her Speed Booster in the process, she came upon the five Zebesians that had formed a line to meet her. As she met them, she slowed down so as to make certain that she dealt with them before going to the bridge to deal with the remaining Pirates. Before coming to a halt, she managed to plow through one of the Zebesians, instantly annihilating him on contact. After coming to a stop, she quickly turned and fired four subsequent uncharged blasts from her Plasma Beam. The four remaining Zebesians were dead before they even managed to get off a shot. With that minor threat neutralized, Samus checked her map and found that she the door a dozen meters in front of her led to the bridge. She then walked forward and steeled herself for whatever would be on the other side of the door. As she approached the door, the door slid open and Samus gazed on through, seeing two Advanced Shield Pirates and an Elite Pirate on the other side of the door as she walked on through.

As soon as she crossed the entrance, she quickly ducked, sensing an ambush. She was not disappointed as several blue energy pulses sailed over her head and struck the two Advanced Shield Pirates that were attempting to ambush her. Samus quickly curled into her Morph Ball form and dropped a series of Morph Ball Bombs. While the shields that the Pirates wore on their left forearms were more than adequate to protect them from small arms fire and even some missile weapons, they were unable to fully cover the Pirate, allowing weapons like the Morph Ball Bomb to damage them if they were not prepared for such an attack. In addition, the Morph Ball Bombs managed to inflict light damage to the green armor the Advanced Shield Pirates wore. However, the bounty hunter knew that the small bombs would be insufficient to deal with the Space Pirate Troopers. To make matters worse, the Elite Pirate had decided to enter the fray and opened fire with his Plasma Artillery Cannon. A glowing blue orb of energy was unleashed from the Elite Pirate's shoulder cannon and headed straight towards Samus. However, since the plasma blast traveled relatively slowly, it allowed Samus time to evade the attack. She quickly dashed to her left and allowed the blast to detonate a safe distance away from her. The Advanced Shield Troopers that had laid the ambush of her, however, were not so fortunate. The plasma blast struck the ground all too close to them and detonated, engulfing them in a wave of plasma. Their portable shields were overloaded by the blast and ceased to function. In addition, their armor had been blown off of them, rendering them vulnerable to normal weaponry. Samus quickly finished them off as they took a few shots at her, only managing to score a couple of hits on her. The two Pirates fell to the ground with massive holes burned through their torsos.

Samus then turned to face down the Elite Pirate and his bodyguard of Advanced Shield Pirates. The Advanced Shield Pirates, not caught off guard by the Hunter, or their commander's Plasma Artillery Cannon blast, whipped out their EMP grenades and tossed them over towards the bounty hunter. Samus quickly dove away from the grenades as they detonated, barely managing to avoid their blast radii and proceeded to focus on the Elite Pirate for the time being, since he was powering his Energy Siphoning System and preparing to fire his Plasma Artillery Cannon once more. The bounty hunter quickly retaliated by charging a Super Missile. As soon as the Super Missile was charged, she unleashed it towards the Elite Pirate's cannon. The missile impacted the cannon and promptly detonated, blowing apart the cannon and taking off not only the armor of the upper right part of his torso, but also blowing off his right arm in the process. The Pirate emitted a horrible shriek of pain as he lost his arm and fell to the ground. The two remaining Advanced Shield Troopers covered him, stepping out in front of him while they opened fire on Samus. Samus, knowing that she would have her hands full with them went in relatively close, ignoring the damage that they were capable of inflicting on her with both their assault rifles and their EMP grenades, and readied her Grapple Lasso. She whipped her left arm towards one of the Advanced Shield Troopers while simultaneously powering a Super Missile and a yellow beam erupted from beneath her left glove and attached itself to the Shield Trooper's shield. Samus then pulled back on the beam and after a couple of seconds, she managed to yank the portable energy shield away from the Advanced Shield Trooper. This rendered him vulnerable to Samus's Super Missile, which she promptly unleashed upon the unfortunate Space Pirate. The missile zeroed in on the Pirate and detonated upon impact, blowing the Pirate apart. She then went to deal with the remaining Advanced Shield Trooper.

The final Advanced Shield Pirate was a little harder to take down since he was being so evasive, not wanting Samus to connect her Grapple Beam to his shield. This did not bother Samus, though, since she had other options for dealing with the Advanced Shield Trooper. She charged a Super Missile and unleashed it upon the Space Pirate. The Space Pirate attempted to dive out of the way of the missile, but it followed his every move and eventually caught up to the Pirate. The Pirate, in a last ditch effort to save himself, raised his shield over his face and upper torso in order to intercept the missile. The missile struck his shield and detonated, blowing the shield off the Pirate's arm, along with the upper half of his energy absorbing armor. With his head and torso no longer protected, Samus switched back to her Plasma Beam and charged a plasma blast. Once the orange ball had formed at the end of her cannon, she unleashed the charged shot towards the Pirate. The blast annihilated the Pirate, leaving nothing behind except ashes.

After the Advanced Shield Troopers had been dealt with, the bounty hunter focused her attention on the wounded Elite Pirate, who was cradling his cauterized stump that sufficed for a right arm. However, he had not been idle during the brief battle. He activated his communicator and called into it, "All cargo retrieval units, return to your ships at once! Take whatever you have and return to base! The Hunter has taken out security and I've lost my arm and my…" but he never finished his sentence, for the bounty hunter then silenced the Elite Pirate with a single shot to the head.

After the battle had ended, she went over to the corner where the crew was huddled. She called out, "Is everyone alright?" as she rushed over to check on them.

The captain, a middle-aged human male with short red hair, standing at about six feet in height, stood up and answered, "So far, so good. The crew was on the bridge when the Pirates attacked. Some security officers went over to some of the containers to check on them, though. We lost contact with them as soon as we were boarded."

Samus nodded. The rest of the crew quickly rose and went to take their stations on the bridge. As they did so, Samus gazed around at the bridge. Unlike many of the other vessels she had been on, the bridge of the _Crab Cake 1_ had been in the bowels of the ship, rather than close to its top or its front. She was easily able to see why this would be preferable, for a single hull breach at the wrong moment and with force fields down could be catastrophic in the middle of a battle. Now that she had time to examine the bridge of the ship, she could easily see a similarity to the bridge of military starships.

As soon as the rest of the crew took their stations, the captain called out, "Report! What's going on?"

The sensor officer checked his console and reported, "Sir, the Space Pirate boarding pods are detaching from the ship. They're headed back out into space. We also are detecting all but one of the Space Pirate ATCs detaching from the ship as well."

"Scan for any signs of a capital ship," the captain commanded. "Space Pirate boarding pods are short-ranged craft."

"Yes sir," the officer replied. After a few moments, the officer reported once more, "Sir, I am detecting no signs of a Space Pirate capital ship. If she's out there, then she's either got an extremely powerful stealth package or a cloaking device."

The captain grimaced. "So there's no way to know whether or not there will be another attack."

Before the sensor officer could respond, the communications officer broke in, proclaiming, "Captain, I've got good news on the comms! We've got some more assistance coming our way!"

Just then, the sensor officer's eyes lit up and cried, "Sir, I'm detecting a Griffin-class frigate and a squadron of Stiletto-class starfighters appearing!"

Soon, the image of a human male that looked to be in his early fifties appeared on the forward view screen. "This is Captain Reed of the frigate _G.F.S. Tigris_. We have come in response to your distress signal. We are here to assist you."

The sensor officer then glanced at his sensors and informed the captain, "Sir, the Space Pirate ATCs are jumping to warp!"

"Track them!" both the captain and Samus blurted. As soon as they had spoken, they glanced at each other. "Forgive me, sir," she said apologetically.

"Don't worry about it, Samus," the captain replied kindly. "I'm just as curious as to the whereabouts of their current base as you are. This is the third time my ship has come under attack by the Pirates. It was only a matter of time before they managed to actually take something from us."

"What were you carrying?" Samus asked.

"Supplies and technology," the captain answered. "We were transporting some advanced missiles and beam weapons to Admiral Dane's fleet and Commander General Malkovich's troops." He then turned to the sensor officer and told him, "Lieutenant Sander, scan the ship. I want to make sure that our inventory is still intact."

Lieutenant Sander checked his console and soon reported, "Sir, we are missing items A-5, B-16, B-22, C-45, and H-3."

"Damn!" the captain swore.

"What is it?" Samus asked.

"They took the new Light Sphere, along with some crates of assault rifles and missile launchers. The missile launchers and assault rifles were nothin' really special in the long run, but the Light Sphere…well, let's just say that they were something designed by both the Chozo and the Luminoth together. It contained the Light Beam, which could be powered up into a Light Missile as its Charge Combo. We were supposed to deliver it to the fleet and it was likely for you. I don't know much about its capacity, but I hear that Light weapons can only be used against the forces of evil; the more evil an enemy is, the more powerful the beam and missiles are." He then went back to the previous topic by saying, "Well, back to what I was about to get to, we were taking our supplies to Admiral Dane and General Malkovich when we stumbled upon another convoy. We were then almost immediately attacked by the Space Pirates. Ixis and Fasome were taken down in the first few seconds of the fighting and the fighter squadron didn't last much longer. Once they dealt with the defenses and started attacking the other ships, I was almost certain that we were the intended target. At least I was until I saw the Pirates take the _Adventure in the Stars_ intact."

A thought then came to Samus's mind. "Captain, do you have the _Adventure's_ emergency transmitter frequency?"

"Yes, why?" he asked. Just as he had asked, though, he knew exactly what she was planning. "You can't seriously be planning on going after them all by yourself, can you?"

"It's my job," Samus replied, as if it was no bother to her at all. "Besides, I can't just leave all those people in the clutches of the Space Pirates. I have to save them. You've got your Galactic Federation in Exile escort here so you should be safe."

The captain then looked into her visor and said, "Thank you for saving us Samus. The frequency for the _Adventure's_ transmitter is five hundred and four megahertz."

"Thank you, sir," Samus replied. She then headed out of the bridge and retraced her footsteps back to the hangar bay.

As soon as she entered the hangar bay, she quickly went back into her starship. The hatch closed as she jumped into her ship and she made her way into the cockpit. Once there, she opened a channel to the bridge of the _Crab Cake 1_ and said, "This is Samus Aran, requesting clearance to depart."

The voice of the ship's captain soon crackled in over the radio saying, "This is Captain Mason of _Crab Cake One_, you are cleared for departure. Good hunting, and good luck."

"Thank you, sir," Samus responded as she closed the channel. She soon powered her ship and its systems came to life. After a few seconds the engines were ready and the hover jets activated, lifting her ship from the floor of the freighter's hangar bay. Once her ship was off the ground, she activated her thrusters and rocketed out of the small hangar bay of the freighter. Once she emerged from the hangar bay, she input the frequency of the _Adventure in the Stars_ into her navigational computer. Then, she waited for a few seconds until she detected the ship traveling in subspace. She then plotted an intercept course. Before jumping to warp, though, she cloaked her ship so that the chances of the Space Pirates managing to detect her would be negligible. Once her ship was cloaked and her course was laid in, a blue subspace window opened and she went to warp.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2:

Samus's gunship exited subspace over a lush, blue verdant world, a far cry from many previous Space Pirate worlds. The planet looked to mostly be covered with oceans, with only small dots of land visible to the naked eye from orbit. At first, Samus wondered if the Space Pirates had dumped the ship and moved the prisoners, but a quick check of her sensors indicated that the ship was present on the planet, as were a large number of lifeforms. In addition, she quickly found a Space Pirate frigate orbiting the planet, along with two heavy freighters and a troop transport. Given the recent losses that the Space Pirates had suffered when they had been found trying to retake Urtraghus, Samus was not all that surprised to find the frigate being the only truly combat capable vessel in orbit. Samus could not help but grin. She finally had them. This was their last holdout. She narrowed her scans and identified a Space Pirate presence on a small island in the northern hemisphere of the planet. It was right on top of the _Adventure in the Stars_, and the bounty hunter surmised that the Pirates had constructed an underground base nearby. Further scans confirmed what she already suspected: Ridley was here as well. In addition, she found the bio-signs of other known Space Pirate leaders, Phantoon, Kraid, Crocomire, and Draygon. _So they finally got around to making clones of Kraid, Phantoon, and Draygon_, she thought with a smirk. She also noted Crocomire's cloning and thought, _And it looks like Crocomire got a posthumous promotion too_. She also detected the presence of a Chozo organic supercomputer and grimaced. _So they have managed to either rebuild Mother Brain once more from Aurora Unit Zero's DNA, or they've built a replica of her_, the hunter thought darkly as she went to enter the atmosphere and land near the Space Pirates' base. She then took her ship down into the atmosphere relatively slowly, for if she traveled too quickly, the atmospheric disturbances produced by her ship would be detected on the Space Pirate sensors.

After a few minutes of descent, she eventually reached the location of the captured cruise liner, and also the likely entrance to the Space Pirate base. The ship was near a large natural rock structure the jutted up about one hundred meters into the sky. Ignoring the rock structure for the moment, Samus scanned the captured cruise liner. Her initial scans revealed that there were only a few Space Pirates onboard the liner, and they were nearing the ramp, along with a large group of humans. She also detected a number of humans underground, surrounded by Space Pirate Troopers. These were undoubtedly captives taken off of the _Adventure_. She then looked around the ship and saw large lines of Space Pirates standing around the vessel, along with a large group of humans. There were also small boxes near the Pirates and Samus detected energy fields around the large group of humans. They were undoubtedly makeshift prisons designed for use when large numbers of prisoners had to be transported by small numbers of guards. Still, there were a noticeable number of Space Pirates standing guard outside, at least one hundred by Samus's count. It was clear what the Pirates were doing, though. They were herding the humans out of the ship and using the mobile force field projectors to confine large numbers of them and take them down into the base. She would not allow that to happen, though.

Lowering her ship so that it would block the entrance to the base, she proceeded to power her ship's energy cannons down to minimal yields so that none of the civilians would be harmed. She then charged her weapons and proceeded to decloak her gunship, hoping that the stealth systems would keep her ship undetected by anyone inside the base. Immediately upon decloaking, she fired on the group of Space Pirates closest to what she figured to be the base's entrance with her primary energy cannons. The scarlet energy bolts tore holes into the group of Space Pirate Troopers and blew them apart, also releasing the humans they were transporting from their energy cages. She proceeded to deploy her ship's ventral point defense energy cannons and programmed them to fire on any and all Space Pirate forces, while ensuring that they would not fire on any humans. The ship then proceeded to follow her commands, spraying energy fire into the groups of the Space Pirates, blasting them apart with little more than single hits, all while inflicting no harm to the human captives at all.

The Space Pirates, noticing that the ship was picking them off with ease, decided to make it more difficult for Samus and her starship by lowering the shield that was capturing the humans and using them for cover. As they lowered the shields, the humans all began to scatter and run in all directions that took them away from the Space Pirates and the base. This made it much tougher for Samus's ship to shoot the Pirates, for oftentimes a civilian would run in front of a Pirate, or be too close for a shot to not risk injuring the civilian as well. To solve this problem, Samus set her ship to autopilot and linked it directly with her Command Visor. She then switched to her Plasma Beam and charged a plasma shot. Once that was finished, she pushed a button and the canopy to her ship's cockpit opened. Samus then jumped from her ship's cockpit and to the ground as her ship continued to pick off Space Pirates. As she descended, fired her charged plasma shot at one of the Space Pirate Troopers who was firing into the crowd of civilians. The orange pulse of plasma struck the Pirate and managed to incinerate the Space Pirate before he managed to hit any of the civilians, most of who had been children and families.

She then landed and turned to face down the next Pirate, a basic gray armored Zebesian soldier. A single uncharged blast from her Plasma Beam was more than sufficient to kill the Zebesian. She then proceeded to target the next closest Zebesian, who was taking aim at a child who was fleeing the scene, and fired a single blast of plasma that destroyed the torso of the unfortunate Space Pirate. With deadly speed and precision, she then slew another Zebesian.

After the first few Zebesians that were trying to kill the civilians had been slain, the others decided that it would be better to focus on the clear and present threats rather than try to produce a body count for the civilians. Several groups of Cyborg Zebesians and even the few Urtragian Space Pirate Troopers that were leading them soon formed ranks and went to deal with the two threats. The Urtragian Space Pirates focused much of their attention on Samus, while the Cyborg Zebesians were sent to try to take down her gunship/attack starfighter. The two dozen Cyborg Zebesians formed a line and proceeded to focus their fire onto the gunship. Blue energy bolts and sickly green plasma missiles erupted from their energy rifles and missile launchers respectively. The blue energy bolts merely glanced off the shields, with some of the bolts burning holes into the ground below the ship. The missiles struck the shields of the starship and detonated, causing a lightning blue field of energy to flare with each hit. However, the missiles were anti-personnel weapons and, at best, could only damage or destroy lightly armored vehicles. The shields of the fighter suffered no damage from the missiles, despite the massive volleys that were being poured into them. The Cyborg Zebesians were then slaughtered mercilessly by a single volley of scarlet energy fire from the point defense cannons of Samus's gunship.

As for Samus, she had little difficulty in dealing with the other Zebesians and the few Space Pirate Troopers that were arrayed against her. She targeted the Pirate Troopers first, viewing them to be the greater threat due to their superior defenses. She charged her Plasma Beam and let loose a single pulse of reddish orange energy. The blast incinerated the lead Space Pirate Trooper, who had a massive hole blown into his torso and was set ablaze by the secondary effects of the Plasma Beam. She then repeated the process several more times until the Urtragian Space Pirates were all dead, with many of them nothing more than charred skeletons and/or ashes. Once the Urtragian Space Pirates had been dealt with, Samus proceeded to slaughter the remaining Zebesian Space Pirates. The Zebesians took only a single uncharged plasma shot each before they were dead. They did not go down without a fight though. They poured energy fire into Samus, whose shields could hold off individual weak attacks without suffering any real damage, but the combined attacks were able to weaken Samus's shields. While she still only lost a single point of energy for every two or three energy blasts that hit her shields, with dozens of Zebesians to deal with, the damage from the attacks would begin to mount rapidly. To that end, she stopped using her Plasma Beam and started using her missiles, seeing that the civilians were a safe distance away from the fighting. Missiles then erupted from her arm cannon and targeted groups of Zebesians. For the first few seconds of the new assault, the Zebesians were caught completely off guard as Samus's arm cannon now disgorged missiles capable of destroying unshielded tanks with single hits.

Since the Zebesians were huddled close together, a dozen went down to the first few missiles, each. Bodies, or pieces of bodies, were hurled through the air away from the epicenter of the explosions as the Zebesians tried in vain to find cover from this new assault. Another missile was ejected from Samus's arm cannon and another eight Zebesians met their end. Eventually, they realized that they would last longer the farther apart they were. As such, they began to scurry away from the Hunter, and each other, and continued to pelt Samus's suit with weak blue energy pulses. Samus did not laugh as they tried in vain to stop her. She merely took a breath and proceeded to methodically slaughter each and every one of the remaining Zebesians. In less than half a minute, the battle had ended. One hundred Zebesians, Cyborg Zebesians, and Urtragian Space Pirate Troopers were now dead.

Once the fighting was over, Samus used her Command Visor to set down her starship and have it recloak itself. She suspected that the Pirates had managed to warn High Command inside the base of her presence, but she still wanted to make sure that on the off chance that they had not detected the fighting, that she could still take them by surprise. Once that was finished, she went over to the passengers of the _Adventure in the Stars_. Looking at the massive group, she thought that there had to be at least a couple thousand passengers here. Once she arrived, she called out to all of them, "Is everyone alright?"

The passengers all nodded. One of the passengers, a Hispanic male in his thirties with black hair and brown eyes came forward and told her, "It looks like we're all fine, thanks to you. All of the Pirates here are dead and there aren't any more stragglers left onboard the _Adventure_, as far as we can tell. However, most of the ship's crew and some families were taken down into the Pirate base below, one hundred in all."

"Don't worry," Samus assured them. "I'll save them. You just get all of the crew that were not taken and get the ship started. We'll need to leave here as soon as everyone else is back onboard. Do you have a manifest that indicates your current complement?"

The man nodded and produced a small data pad. He handed it to her and said, "This contains a headcount of everyone that was onboard the _Adventure_, passengers and crew. In addition, this tells us how many are onboard the ship, and if anyone that isn't onboard at the moment is dead or not."

The bounty hunter took the pad and looked at it. She then scanned the pad with her Scan Visor and the information was downloaded to her suit and placed on her HUD. She handed the data pad back to the man and told him, "Hurry and get everyone else back onboard. I don't know how long the rescue will take, but chances are that there could be more Pirates coming or, if they decide to scuttle the base, they could open fire on it from orbit."

The man nodded and began to organize the rescued captives and proceeded to lead them back onto the ship in an orderly fashion.

Once she had made sure that everyone was heading back towards the ship, and that there had been no surviving Space Pirates, she rushed towards a small door with a blue energy field over it. She instantly recognized the door as one that was often used by Space Pirates. Firing a single shot from her Power Beam, she collapsed the shield and approached the door, causing it to open. Once she entered the base, she saw that the cave led deeper into the ground, and into the subterranean caverns. The first thing that came to mind as Samus continued on her trek was the fact that this base's layout greatly resembled the layout of the base on Zebes, minus the Zebesian wildlife. So far, she found no native lifeforms supporting the Space Pirates. She bounded over the small steps and hills as she continued to make her way deeper into the base. She soon came to what looked to be a dead end, with one part leading to a door with what black, burnt looking blast shield above a series suspicious looking rock barrier. She knew better. She leapt towards the stone wall, curling herself and then somersaulted through the air, releasing a field of yellow energy from her suit. Her Screw Attack broke through the wall like it had been made a tissue paper and she continued on her way until she came across another door. She fired a shot from her Power Beam and collapsed the shield over the entrance. Once she did so, the door opened and she charged on through.

Next, she found herself on the top of a long hill with a low ceiling. This hill, however, had bioweapons guarding it in the form of Reos, Mellas, and some Geemers. Not wanting to waste any time dealing with them, she Screw Attacked her way down the hill, plowing through anything and everything that did not get out of her way. Nothing could withstand her onslaught as she continued unabated all the way down the hill, and towards another door. Once she arrived at the door, she fired another Power Beam blast, opened the next door, and surged through.

In the next sector of the base, there was a staircase that led down to the next level. She could already hear the sounds of Space Pirates walking on the levels below her and muttering to themselves. To be on the safe side, she quickly switched to her missiles, prompting the ends of her arm cannon to open, and soon charged down the first stairwell. Once she reached its end, she quickly turned around and found a Zebesian Space Pirate wearing green armor standing before her. Knowing that the green-armored Zebesian was only vulnerable to missile fire, she fired a missile at the Space Pirate. The small missile leapt from her cannon and towards the Pirate. Before he could even react to her presence, the missile struck him and annihilated him. The bounty hunter merely charged by him and went down the next staircase. Once she got down to the next floor, she turned and found another green-armored Zebesian. Once more, she fired a missile towards the Pirate and annihilated him with a single hit. After the second Pirate was dead, she charged down the staircase and prepared to take down another Zebesian. Sure enough, down on the next level, another Zebesian stared back at her as soon as she had turned to face him. This one was a little faster on the draw, though, and managed to get a couple of shots off with an energy rifle that was built into his right claw. The blue bolts of energy sailed wide of the bounty hunter, though, and Samus wasted no time leveling her arm cannon at the Pirate. A missile soon erupted from her cannon and another Zebesian met his end. Once that Space Pirate was killed, the bounty hunter charged past him and went down another flight of stone stairs.

As she neared the bottom, she turned as she found that this Zebesian was taking the initiative and opened fire on her before she managed to reach the bottom. Samus dove to the bottom of the stairs, avoiding the energy bolts and sickly green plasma missiles fired by the Space Pirate and turned to face the Zebesian. She then unleashed another missile at the Zebesian and annihilated him. Once the blast had dissipated and the Space Pirate was nothing more than dust and mist spread throughout the area, the bounty hunter continued down the next set of stairs.

There, she met one final Zebesian. This Zebesian, however, had initially wanted no part of Samus in a battle. However, given the fact that she was charging through the Space Pirates as quickly as possible, he knew that he had no choice but to try to inflict some damage to the bounty hunter before he was slaughtered like the rest of his comrades. Unfortunately, he was unable to do so, for as soon as Samus appeared, she unleashed a missile from her arm cannon that almost instantaneously struck the unfortunate Zebesian and annihilated him. Samus then traveled down one more flight of stairs before coming across a door with a red shield. She remembered from her previous encounters that doors with red blast shields had to be opened by firing missiles at them. She proceeded to fire a single missile at the door and less than a second after the missile erupted from her arm cannon, it struck the shield, detonating. The explosion blew away the red blast shields and the door opened, granting Samus entry. The bounty hunter then ran through the door and proceeded to make her way deeper into the base.

The next room was seemingly barren. Samus held her arm cannon out in front of her and slowed her pace as she moved forward. With the lack of enemies, Space Pirate or bioweapon, she knew that there had to be something coming. Her suspicions were soon confirmed as down the hallway, the ceiling began to crack and pieces of stone fell to the floor. The bounty hunter soon heard the sounds of footsteps coming, along with more dust and pieces of stone falling from the ceiling. Samus pointed her arm cannon up towards the ceiling, and the sound of the footfalls, switched to her Power Beam, and began to charge a Super Missile. After a few more steps, the bounty hunter could tell that the ceiling was about to give way and she backed up a few steps. Sure enough, the ceiling about eighteen feet in front of her soon collapsed and a massive creature came crashing through. The creature landed in front of her and gave a roar of surprise and anger. Samus recognized the being all too well as being Crocomire. Crocomire was a lizard-like being with rough red skin and a tan underbelly. He also had two sets of lower legs and a pair of arms with three claws, along with eight eyes, four on each side of his face. The creature soon focused on the hunter before him and gave a loud roar of rage and hatred.

Before engaging Crocomire, though, Samus activated her Scan Visor and scanned him, wanting to know about any changes that the Space Pirates made to the clone. As she scanned the creature, her HUD formed a square around the roaring beast and various bits of data were showing up in other sections of her HUD. After a few seconds, the scan was complete and it read, _Morphology – Crocomire. The rough hide of this creature is impervious to most known personal weapons. Its only known weakness is its mouth. This creature can fire blasts of fire and energy from its mouth and uses its claws in close combat to inflict devastating damage._ Samus grimaced. She strongly suspected that Crocomire was much tougher this time around than he was last. The only good thing, for Samus, was that she had a few tools and weapons this time around that she did not have in her last battle against him.

After scanning the beast, a long bluish white life bar appeared on the top of her HUD, with the name "Crocomire" appeared just below the life bar. She charged a Super Missile once more and took aim at the creature's mouth. The creature unleashed a stream of flame towards Samus, something that he had not demonstrated in their last battle. Samus jumped over the stream of energy and launched her Super Missile towards Crocomire's Mouth. The missile erupted from Samus's arm cannon and in less than a second, crossed the distance between the bounty hunter and the reptilian beast. The missile sailed into the monster's mouth and Crocomire closed it, swallowing the missile. As he swallowed the missile, the missile exploded and Crocomire roared in pain. Smoke issued from his mouth as he coughed. The beast took a few steps backwards as Samus proceeded to check her HUD. A small chunk of health had disappeared from the life bar. She smiled. Her attacks were actually damaging the beast. She then proceeded to charge a Power Beam blast and fired it towards the beast's eyes. The blast struck Crocomire in the eyes and caused him to recoil, taking a few steps backwards. One of the beast's eyes had been destroyed and blue blood leaked from the wound. Samus checked the creature's life bar once more and found that it had decreased once again. The bounty hunter smiled to herself. Crocomire had another weakness, one that would be easy for her to exploit. Samus switched to her Plasma Beam and took aim at the beast once more.

Samus targeted the eyes of the monster as he began to charge towards her and charged her Plasma Beam. A ball of orange energy formed at the end of her cannon and when she got a clear shot at the eyes, she opened fire on them. The left front eye was the next eye to be destroyed by the bounty hunter. The plasma shot struck the eye and set it, and part of the creature's head ablaze. Crocomire roared in agony and flailed towards Samus as it was partially blinded. Samus managed to dodge the swipes and the rakes of his claws, and charged a Super Missile, firing it into the mouth of the roaring beast. Again, the creature swallowed the missile and it detonated in Crocomire's stomach, forcing the beast to cough up more smoke. All the while, Crocomire was backing his way towards a large hole in the floor about twelve feet away. This hole was full of a green acid that was so caustic that even Samus's Gravity Suit, and her current Power Suit with the inbuilt Gravity Upgrade was insufficient to protect her for long. If the beast fell into that pit, it would be all over, and Samus knew it.

The bounty hunter switched back to her Plasma Beam and took more shots at Crocomire's eyes. Two more eyes, the right front, and second to the front right eye were destroyed in this volley of shots. The monster continued to backtrack towards the acid pit, unable to comprehend the danger he was putting himself in. Crocomire, however, was not out of the fight yet. He turned and took stock of himself, and faced down Samus as she was charging another blast of plasma. Knowing that his stream of fire would be dodged too easily by the agile warrior, he decided to launch a volley of fireballs from his mouth. Crocomire opened his mouth, knowing the danger of Samus firing her Plasma Beam into his mouth and unleashed a hail of fireballs towards the Hunter.

Samus weaved her way through the massive volley of fireballs, dodging each and every fireball with the grace of a professional dancer. The bounty hunter then retaliated with a Charged Plasma Beam to the mouth of Crocomire. Despite the beast being accustomed to belching out streams of fire and fireballs, his throat was not designed to take the searing temperatures of the plasma of Samus's Plasma Beam. The beam entered the creature's mouth and burned the back of his throat upon impact. The beam burned through the protective membranes that prevented Crocomire's own fire from burning his throat when he would unleash it upon either prey or an enemy and burned its way through the throat entirely, and out the other end of the beast. The beast gave a guttural roar that quickly became quieter as the creature staggered backwards towards the acid pit. Eventually, the beast arrived at the edge of the pit and began to fall. It did not matter, though, for Samus fired another blast of plasma into the creature's mouth. This blast was at an upward angle and, as such, when it burned through the roof of Crocomire's mouth, it bored its way straight through the reptile's brain. The orange blast emerged from the upper rear part of the creature's head and the creature fell backwards into the acid. In the end, it did not matter, though, for Crocomire was already dead. The corpse of the beast staggered backwards, its momentum carrying it over the edge and into the acid pit. The beast then fell into the pool of acid a few feet below the floor and there was a massive splash.

Green acid was thrown up over the edge of the pit and landed on the metal floor, where it promptly ate away at the metal, smoke and steam rising from the various points of impact. Samus made certain to stay a safe distance away from the acid. As she looked into the pool, though, she saw the skin melting off of the dead body of Crocomire, revealing his skeleton, with a portion of his skull missing due to her Plasma Beam. Once the flesh was melted off of Crocomire's bones, the body sank beneath the acid. The battle was over. As soon as Crocomire was defeated, several panels on the wall retracted and a few crates fell to the floor. Behind the walls of the panels were computer consoles. Samus hoped that the computers would give her a more detailed layout of the base than her initial scans had given her. She then looked up at the ceiling and saw a mechanical eye lowering itself and focusing in on her. A yellow light emerged from the eye and washed over her. It did not inflict any damage on her suit, but that did not mean that the light was benign. Samus was being scanned, and she knew exactly who was scanning her. He stared into the light and raised her arm cannon towards it. She then fired a single blast of plasma towards the eye and shattered it. Pieces of metal fell to the floor as all that was left of the eye was a small burnt out stalk and a few shards of metal that littered the floor.

Before continuing into the next room, though, Samus made certain to blast open all of the metallic crates that had appeared on the floor. She sustained no damage from her fight against Crocomire so she did not need any of the purple, yellow, or orange healing energy balls that appeared. However, several of the crates had contained missiles, which she could use to replenish her expended ordnance. Once she had resupplied herself and was back to full capacity, she made her way over to the nearest computer console and used her Scan Visor to hack it. Once the console was hacked, she managed to download all of its information to her logbook. She took the time to read the data logs, though, just in case they held useful information to her. This log detailed the losses that had been sustained during the last Battle of Urtraghus in which the Space Pirates had launched a disastrous attempt to retake their current homeworld. The battle had resulted in the annihilation of most of their fleet and all but a few thousand of their forces. In addition, more than half of High Command had been killed in the attack.

Seeing nothing of value on that console, she went over and hacked the next console. This one contained a map of the entire base, including the locations of each of the Space Pirate commanders, in addition to where the prisoners were located. According to a map, most of the prisoners were being held in an underwater prison that had been lowered into a large pool that was likely a makeshift aquarium for Draygon. Studying the map further, Samus saw that the prisoners were located only a couple of rooms away. In addition, she found that there were several prisoners that were located in small individual cells deeper inside the base. Once she had finished scanning the second console, she went over to the third console. This console was different from the others. It appeared to be more of a lock than anything else.

Samus scanned the console and her scans soon revealed that the console was actually a lock for secret weapons compartments and safes for locking valuables. She went over to the gray console and saw a single green button. Feeling confident that should this be a trap that her suit would be able to protect her, she went over to the console and pushed the button. Immediately, the grinding of gears and engines was heard as several floor panels retracted. Samus turned and saw several structures rising from the retracted panels. Indeed, this room had been a safe for keeping valuables and weapons. Samus saw several racks of weapons: all kinds of energy and physical projectile throwing pistols, rifles, carbines, etcetera. There were also missile launchers, grenade launchers, grenades, and other weapons on various other racks and tables that rose from the floor. Not only that, but there were several crates that were full of energy orbs and missiles for her suit. She quickly blasted them open and charged her beam so she could draw them in and replenish her suit's shields and missile supplies. She also noticed a small structure rise from the center of the room. This structure seemed to be holding a small glowing sphere of light in the middle. She activated her Scan Visor and scanned the object. The scan read, _Object – Light Beam. A beam weapon designed by both the Chozo and the Luminoth that uses a special and unknown type of energy. Unlike the previous version of the Light Beam, this one houses a special type of self-sustaining energy that does not require an alternative source of ammunition. It is exceedingly effective against magical and magic-based enemies like the Elvanheim and any magically reanimated enemies. It is also highly effective against evil beings, but does little to no damage to anything that is good. In addition to its damaging properties, it is also able to eliminate magical barriers and spells and reverse magical brainwashing that has been placed over its target. Can also be charged to power up a Light Missile, which has an expanded blast radius is capable of affecting mechanical enemies. Light Missiles are twice as powerful as Super Missiles in base destructive power, which is added to the damage they inflict upon evil beings should they be used against enemies that are truly evil. Light Missiles cost ten normal missiles per use_.

After reading the scan, Samus went over to the structure holding the sphere of light and reached out with her arm cannon towards it. Such a weapon would be essential in the upcoming battles against Cyrus and possibly against any Magic Lords that might reveal themselves. As soon as her arm cannon made contact with the sphere, it began to flow over her arm cannon as if it were made of some form of liquid. Her arm cannon glowed a bright gold as the energy penetrated the cannon and integrated itself into her systems. Once the Light Beam was fully integrated into her systems, she test fired a shot towards the door at the other end of the room. A bright yellowish gold burst of light erupted from the cannon and struck the blue shield over the door at the other end of the room. The shield instantly fell and the bounty hunter was granted access to the next room. She proceeded towards the door and as she approached, it opened. Samus ran through and entered the next room.

Meanwhile, down in the bowels of the base, Ridley and a Space Pirate Commander watched the screens as Samus had obliterated the camera. Several Urtragian Space Pirate Troopers were manning several security and sensor consoles and were busy directing the security forces towards Samus's location. Given the heinous losses, they could not afford to send anything other than cloned Zebesians and a few cloned Cyborg Zebesians to face her. Ridley stared at the screens and bellowed, "What is the status of our security forces? Where is Samus?"

One of the Pirates then turned back to him and replied, "We don't know, sir. Samus entered Crocomire's room and she has yet to exit it yet."

A feminine voice from behind Ridley then commanded in a stern, yet calm, mechanical voice, "Send two security teams to the weapons storage room immediately. If nothing else, they will encounter Samus along the way. Also, inform Draygon and Phantoon that they will likely have a guest arriving shortly."

"Understood," the Pirate responded.

Ridley then looked back at the one who issued the order. From a glass enclosed stasis tank, an organic brain with a single eye looked out at the Pirates and the bioweapons that they had developed and gave a shudder of satisfaction. "Are you sure that a couple of security teams will be enough, Mother?" the Space Dragon asked, his tone demonstrating his concern. "This is Samus Aran we're dealing with. Surely you should know this."

"I may be a clone, Ridley, but I have all of Mother Brain's and MB's memories and Mother Brain's personality," the brain retorted. "Remember, Ridley, I am Mother Brain, the true leader of the Space Pirates! I expect my orders to be carried out to the letter and the spirit of said orders."

"On Zebes, perhaps," Ridley snorted. "You were only in charge of the Zebesian Space Pirates. Here, we have Urtragian Space Pirates, the originals. High Command is in charge of them."

"And High Command placed me in charge of all Space Pirates on Shanera," Mother Brain proclaimed.

"Be careful, Mother," Ridley warned. His tone was not threatening in any way, merely calm. "I am a member of High Command too, and its top general, and as such, I have a lot of influence with the rest of the council, and _it_ has final authority over everything; even you. Remember, we brought you online so that you could clone more Metroids, control them, and brainwash the humans we captured and help turn them into Techno Knights and Techno Lords. We're giving you a lot of leeway here. Don't make it so that our faith in you was misplaced."

"I know," Mother Brain retorted indignantly. "I have already completed the cloning of the Metroids and are releasing them as we speak into the middle levels of the base. As for the captives, we already have the first batch undergoing the initial stages of the transformation as we speak. It should be completed within the hour."

"Good," Ridley rumbled in satisfaction.

One of the Pirates then turned back to Ridley and told him, "My lord, our sensors indicate that the Light Sphere has disappeared."

"What?" both Ridley and Mother Brain gasped.

The Space Pirate nodded. "Our sensors are no longer reading the energy signature of the Light Sphere. All of our initial scans showed that it also housed a variation of the Light Beam, a weapon that was used by the Hunter on Aether."

Ridley then began to get concerned. "What did the scans say about the weapon?"

"Not much that we know of," the Pirate responded. "We had only completed initial scans. So far, though, the scans indicated that the weapon was significantly different from the one the Hunter used on Aether. This one was said to be significantly more powerful, at least against organic opponents."

Ridley shifted his weight uncomfortably. He had been against going on the raid that had undoubtedly brought down the wrath of Samus Aran upon the Space Pirates at the moment. They had received an anonymous tip about a powerful weapon and some good candidates for their own Techno Soldier program. His sole reasoning had been that he did not trust anonymous tips like the one that they had received. While this would not have been a problem a few months ago, as things were now, he felt as if the first order of business was to get the Space Pirates back on their feet and replenish their forces. While the Galactic Federation Civil War did give them excellent opportunities to capture some civilians and transform them into their new weapons, he also knew that they had to take things slowly at first. The Galactic Federation in Exile had dealt them a devastating blow when they had attempted to retake Urtraghus. All but one of their capital warships had been destroyed, and their numbers had been whittled down to less than one thousand members, not counting cloned Zebesian cannon fodder soldiers and various bioweapons, and most of them were now in orbit onboard the frigate, _Siriacus_. And even though they had suffered few losses in the raid that resulted in the capture of the _Adventure in the Stars_ and of several technologies on a Federation heavy freighter, several of the losses had been an Elite Pirate and a few Urtragian Space Pirates. The raid had initially been viewed as a partial success, since they had wanted to capture the freighter, itself, but had to settle for some of its cargo instead. Things had been looking up since they had discovered that they had captured a piece of Chozo and Luminoth weaponry, though. Now, Ridley was concerned once more. If Samus had managed to get a hold of the Light Beam and it was, indeed, significantly more powerful than the Light Beam variant she had used on Aether had been, then things could get worse for the Pirates very quickly.

Soon, another Space Pirate Trooper turned to them and reported, "My lords, we have another problem. The troopers on the surface that were supposed to bring down the prisoners from the captured star liner have not reported in. Our sensors also find no trace of them at all, though there are residual energy signatures around the captured star liner."

"Damn!" both Ridley and Mother Brain swore. "Samus has rescued the captives."

"Not all of them," the Space Pirate corrected. "We still managed to get some of the captives inside the base before the Hunter arrived. We're bringing them down here as we speak."

"Good," Ridley said.

Mother Brain then focused on Ridley. "We must make preparations immediately. We cannot allow Samus to reach our command center and free the prisoners. Too many resources have been put into this operation already. We cannot afford to suffer another significant loss.

Ridley then turned to Mother Brain and requested, "Let me go and intercept Samus."

"No," Mother Brain retorted harshly. "Your record against Samus has been horrendous, especially recently."

Ridley scowled. While he had to admit that she was right about his record against Samus, his last battle against the bounty hunter on Z-1A resulting in his near death, he also knew that he was the best qualified to deal with her. "Let me take her on," the Space Dragon pleaded. "With some backup, I think I can beat her, especially if we use Rodney and Virginia as support."

"Out of the question," Mother Brain snapped. "The loyalty of the Techno Lords is currently uncertain at best. While they have not actively targeted Space Pirate units in tests, they have also not fired on enemy Federation or civilian targets, yet, either. Stay here. We'll let Draygon, the Metroids, and Phantoon deal with Samus. Besides, I think that the Metroids will be a more effective psychological weapon right now, given the Metroid Hatchling's sacrifice of itself to save her against the first clone of Mother Brain."

Ridley then slumped over, defeated, and said, "Understood, Mother." He then turned back towards the screen and watched Samus make her way through the empty room before Draygon's aquarium. While Mother Brain seemed to think that Draygon had a chance against her, Ridley thought otherwise. He subtly glanced back at Mother Brain and could not help but think that Science Team had screwed up on the cloning of Mother Brain when they used Aurora Unit Zero's DNA in the cloning attempt. Either that, or that she was brought online too soon. This Mother Brain was much shorter in temper, and far less careful than the two previous Mother Brains. He shook off the thought, not wanting to dwell on it since Mother Brain was telepathic. He then focused on Samus. If they survived this encounter, then he could have Science Team take a look at Mother Brain later. For now, he would do what was needed to both follow Mother's orders, for now, and to kill his nemesis: Samus Aran.

Samus made her way through the next room in the base. Much to her surprise, there were no Space Pirates or bioweapons waiting for her. In fact, there was nothing in this room at all. It had no furniture or flashing lights at all, only a single line of lights above to provide illumination. Samus quickly activated her Scan Visor and scanned the room to see if there were any secret traps, invisible enemies, or hidden consoles or panels. She swept her gaze across the entire room and the ceiling as well. She found nothing at all. Once her scans were completed, she checked her map and saw that the room just beyond the door at the end of the current room was the last known location of Draygon. Given that Draygon was a water-based enemy, she figured that he had not moved, and that there was likely a trap in the room that would force a battle between her and the beast. It was a trap she would gladly spring, for many of the captives from the _Adventure in the Stars_ were being held in that room as well. Wasting no time, Samus fired another blast from her Light Beam and opened the door to the next room. She then went through the door and to the location of her next battle.

Upon emerging in the other room, the door closed behind her and a black shield rose over the door. She gazed forward and saw a large underground lake. Checking her map, she saw that there were a series of tunnels beneath the lake. Knowing that she was undoubtedly walking towards a battle with one of the Space Pirate generals, she readied herself for battle and stepped closer to the edge of the lake and she soon found a small metallic platform floating in the center of the lake. She paid little heed to the platform and quickly waded out into the middle of the lake. As she continued on her way, the water rose until it was about to her chest, and then there was a large drop off, and soon, she was completely submerged in the water.

As she was fully submerged in the water, the Gravity Feature of her Power Suit activated and a purple glow emanated from her suit. She soon hit the floor of the water and began to walk along the lakebed. She checked her HUD and, sure enough, just as she was beginning to make her way towards the center of the lake, four Pink Zebesians, Zebesians that wore pink armor that simulated the effects of Samus's Gravity Suit, approached her. Samus knew that their suits were impervious to most weaponry save for Plasma Beam shots, but she wanted to test her new Light Beam on the Space Pirates. To that end, she charged her Light Beam and locked onto the leader of the Pink Zebesians. She then unleashed her Light Beam at the Pirates as they got within range of her and opened fire on her. The shotgun-like spread of golden energy pulses erupted from her arm cannon and zeroed in on not only the Pink Zebesian leader, but on the other Pirates in his squadron. The pulses struck the Pirates and exploded, covering the Space Pirates in a golden light. The glow remained for a two seconds before it began to fade. As soon as the light faded, the Pirates disappeared in the golden glow, completely disintegrated by the attack.

After repulsing the attack, Samus continued her trek to the center of the lake. As she approached the center, she saw a single red blip appear on her radar in front of her. She knew that it was likely Draygon. She looked above her and found the massive green skinned crustacean-like being with eight legs and a green fish-like tail with a sharp claw on its end known as Draygon descending towards her. Samus activated her Scan Visor and scanned the creature. The scan read, _Morphology – Draygon. This is a clone of the original Draygon defeated by Samus Aran on planet Zebes shortly before its destruction. This Draygon has no remarkable differences compared to its original. Its weaknesses are its underbelly and electricity. It is capable of firing globs of gray mucus from its mouth that can hinder an opponent's movement, making it easier for it to grab and pummel._ Samus then grinned. While there were no destroyed underwater turrets for her to take advantage of, she did not need them, for she had her Wavebuster.

She quickly switched to her Wave Beam and quickly charged it as Draygon began the battle by firing globs of sticky mucus towards her. Samus quickly dodged the globs of mucus, but Draygon would not make it so easy for her to kill it. The creature quickly rushed towards Samus and tried to thrust its sharp tail towards her. Samus somersaulted towards the creature, activating her Screw Attack in the process, and barreled into it. The Screw Attack forced Draygon back several meters and put some distance between Samus and the crustacean. The bounty hunter then uncurled herself, locked onto Draygon, and unleashed a steady stream of electricity from her Wavebuster on the crustacean. Draygon cried out in pain as the stream of lightning struck it and electricity arced across its body. In addition to the obscene damage that the Wavebuster was inflicting on the creature, the Charge Combo also paralyzed the creature, rendering it unable to attack or defend itself. Try as it might, the creature was unable to do anything to save itself or harm Samus in any way. It did not take long for the end to come. After ten seconds of abuse, Draygon succumbed to its injuries. Its eyes rolled back into its head and the charred remains of the beast began to float up to the surface.

With the threat of Draygon dealt with, Samus noticed hatch appear on the lakebed a few feet in front of her. Scanning the hatch she found that the hatch was an elevator that led deeper into the base and walked over to it at a brisk pace. Once she arrived, she stood on the metal platform and waited. After a second, there was a clank and a series of bubbles rose from the surface of the lake. Samus soon saw the lakebed rise up all around her and soon, the lakebed turned into a metallic tunnel that was free of water. Upon her emerging from the water, the purple glow of her suit's Gravity Feature disappeared. Once the elevator stopped at the bottom, she stepped off and made her way further into the Space Pirate base.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

Samus rushed down an unoccupied corridor as quickly as possible. She wanted to quickly deal with the Space Pirate leadership in the bowels of the base so she could rescue the captives taken from the _Adventure in the Stars_ and get them back to the ship and off this planet before they were either killed, enslaved, or converted into Techno Soldiers by the Space Pirates. After traveling almost a hundred meters, she came across a door with a green blast shield. Remembering that green blast shields required Super Missiles to take down, she switched to her Power Beam and charged it. She proceeded to launch a missile and a large missile with a green-tipped warhead emerged from her arm cannon. The missile quickly sped to the door and detonated upon impact, instantly collapsing the blast shield. The door opened and Samus proceeded to enter a large, gray, dark, and seemingly empty room and quickly activated her Scan Visor, believing that this was a trap. Sure enough, her visor picked up several energy signatures, but they were difficult to spot. Switching to her X-Ray Visor, she quickly managed to identify the signatures as having belonged to Zebesian Space Pirates. Apparently, they thought that their cloaking devices would allow them to get a few free hits in on the Hunter. Samus quickly disavowed them of that notion by switching to her Plasma Beam and firing a series of uncharged shots at the Pirates. The orange blasts of plasma instantly burned through the weak armor of the Pirates and felled the quartet in rapid succession. As each of the Pirates were killed, they fell to the ground and decloaked, their cloaking devices having been destroyed by Samus's fire. After she finished off the Pirates, she switched back to her Combat Visor and charged her Plasma Beam. Several missiles that the dead Pirates had been carrying left their bodies and floated over to Samus, her Charged Plasma Beam pulling them towards her. Once the missiles made contact with her suit, they were instantly converted into energy and stored within Samus's suit, replenishing part of her missile supply. Once she had finished resupplying herself, she went over to the exit, blasted down the blue blast shield, and proceeded into the next corridor.

The next corridor appeared to be made out of gray stone and clay. There was also some soil on the ground, which allowed short, green grass to grow. Samus suspected that the grass was not photosynthetic since there was little to no light in this corridor. In fact, it was almost completely dark in this corridor. Samus quickly switched to her X-Ray Visor once more and continued to make her way down the corridor. She checked her sensors and found that there were no environmental hazards to speak of on this level, which surprised her a bit. Oftentimes, the Space Pirates chose underground bases that also had natural hazards like lava, acid, or extreme heat so as to make life difficult for an invading army that might try to come down to face them. This base, on the other hand, was quite different. In fact, this planet was much different from many of the Space Pirate main base worlds in how temperate it was and in how much life it supported.

The bounty hunter continued down the corridor until she saw a blur of motion in front of her. She quickly stopped and took cover behind a small outcropping of ivy, after scanning it to make sure that it was non-hostile. Sure enough, two Space Pirate Troopers appeared and were likely searching for her. Samus suppressed a grin. Two Space Pirate Troopers would not be sufficient to kill her. Charging her Plasma Beam, she emerged from her cover and locked onto the Pirate on the right of the two-man formation. She unleashed her Charged Plasma Blast on the Pirate and incinerated the Pirate with a single shot. The second Pirate, however, was not caught unawares. Immediately upon seeing his companion's demise, he unleashed a hail of energy fire upon Samus. The bounty hunter quickly dove behind the cover of the vines, only sustaining a single hit, which took off only a couple units of energy. The barrage of energy bolts followed her path and began pruning the vines that she was hiding behind. As the Pirate continued to fire, using his energy rifle to blow through the vines, miraculously missing Samus with each shot, Samus charged another plasma blast. After a second, it was fully charged and she dove from her cover, into another blast, which only took of a single unit of energy, and fired the charged blast at the Space Pirate. Despite the agility of the Space Pirate, he was unable to dodge the plasma blast that traveled at nearly the speed of light. The Space Pirate was reduced to a charred corpse and fell backwards as most of his torso was now missing. With the two Space Pirates having been dealt with, Samus continued on towards another blue blast shield. She knocked down the shield and proceeded to enter the next room.

In the next room, Samus found a sight that she did not expect at all, for inside this chamber was none other than a single jellyfish-like creature with a translucent green upper body, four bright red internal nuclei, and four claw-like mandibles, one pair was longer and designed for grabbing prey, while the shorter mandibles were used as a part of the creature's feeding process. It was a larval Metroid. At the sight of the creature, she stopped and stared at the creature. As if sensing her, the Metroid turned to face her, giving off a surprised chirp. The creature ceased what it was doing and floated over towards the bounty hunter. For a moment, Samus wondered if the Metroid had sensed the Metroid DNA still inside her, for while Samus's operation after her Metroid DNA had become destabilized had taken out much of the DNA, some of it still remained to act as a vaccine against any further X-Parasite infections, should there still be some of the parasites in other locations in the galaxy. Samus immediately lowered her arm cannon, though she also made certain to switch to her Ice Beam, just incase. She activated her Scan Visor and scanned the creature. The scan read, _Morphology – Metroid. Metroids are energy-based predators. They will latch onto prey with their powerful pincers and proceed to drain it of its life energy, growing larger in the process. They are averse to extremely cold temperatures and their only known vulnerabilities are the Ice Beam. The only way to detach a Metroid is to enter Morph Ball mode and lay a Bomb_.

Samus did not know what to do. The fact that she had Metroid DNA inside of her, as well as having had her life saved by a Metroid twice, made her hesitant to want to attack this creature. She knew the danger posed by feral Metroids, and it was tremendous, but she had also seen a softer and more compassionate side to the creatures as well, as evidenced by the Metroid Hatchling. As such, she merely waited to see what actions the Metroid would take. She would not initiate combat against the creature, but she would use whatever force was necessary to defend herself if it attacked. As the Metroid approached, Samus made no hostile movements and merely waited to see how the Metroid would respond to her presence. She soon received her answer as the Metroid's mouth sprang open, its mandibles spread out and it lunged towards the bounty hunter in an attempt to grab her and drain her of her life energy. However, Samus was faster on the draw. She quickly raised her arm cannon and fired a single blue pulse of freezing energy at the creature. The Ice Beam blast struck the Metroid and spread out from the point of impact in a wave of ice, encasing the creature. The frozen Metroid fell to the ground where it clattered and rolled a few feet before coming to a stop. A pang of sadness came over the bounty hunter as she pointed her arm cannon at the Metroid. "I'm sorry. You left me no choice," she told the frozen creature as she unleashed a single missile from her arm cannon. The missile rocketed towards the frozen Metroid and quickly struck the creature, detonating in a massive explosion and shattering the Metroid. While the Metroid was not stated in her scan to have been a Tallon Metroid, Samus could only wonder if it was since it only took a single missile to shatter it. In the end, she shook off the thought. Gray Voice and Admiral Dane had told her that her current suit's weapons were noticeably more powerful than any of her previous suit's weapons. It was just as likely that the missile was simply powerful enough to shatter the Metroid on its own, regardless of whether or not it was the weaker Tallon Metroid, or a Metroid cloned from the DNA of a SR388 Metroid.

Samus did not dwell on the Metroid's attack and demise any further as she proceeded to make her way through the room, shattering a gray metallic crate with a blast from her Charged Power Beam. Switching back to her Ice Beam, she charged it and drew in the pack of ten missiles as she made her way though the room. After she had drawn in the missiles, she unleashed the charged Ice Beam blast against the wall to her right. The blast of energy splashed across the wall and spread out, encasing it in ice. After the spread of ice had ceased, there was a circular formation of ice on the wall that extended from the floor all the way to the ceiling, with small bits and pieces of the floor and ceiling also being frozen. In addition, the blast also expanded out to the right a good ways as well, to a radius of about six meters or so. She soon came to the end of the room and fired a single blast at the blue blast shield, collapsing it and granting her entrance to the next corridor.

Samus made her way into the next corridor expecting to face down more Metroids. She was not disappointed as she came upon a staircase that led deeper into the base, and a Metroid came flying towards her. Wasting no time, she fired a single uncharged ice blast towards the Metroid and froze it solid. The Metroid promptly stopped in its tracks and fell to the ground, proceeding to roll down the staircase. Before it could reach the bottom, though, Samus fired a missile at the frozen predator. The missile promptly struck the creature and detonated, annihilating it. The bounty hunter then made her way down the stairs and once she reached the bottom, she turned around, seeing that there was no exit on the wall.

After turning, she found a pair of Metroids coming right towards her not far from the entrance to either the next room or corridor. She gave a melancholy sigh as she picked off each of the Metroids with a single Ice Beam shot, each. The two jellyfish-like creatures fell clattered on the ground and rolled to a halt as they were frozen by the Hunter. Samus then finished off the two Metroids with one missile, each. Once they had been taken care of, she blasted the door open and proceeded to make her way to the next room.

The next room was full of lava and was also superheated, according to her environmental sensors. However, the heat posed no threat to her new Power Suit, which already had the Varia Feature built into it. There were several metal platforms that provided a safe path over the lava for those without the protection of both a Varia and Gravity Suit or feature that simulated the effects of said suits. Since Samus's suit was equipped with both she merely continued to make her way through the room across the platforms until she came across another Metroid. She looked past the Metroid and found the desiccated husk of what had been a Zebesian Space Pirate. Apparently, the Metroid was still hungry, for upon sighting the oncoming warrior, the Metroid rushed towards Samus. The bounty hunter quickly neutralized the Metroid's threat with a single blast from her Ice Beam, followed up by a single missile. Once the Metroid had been dealt with, she made her way over to the exit to the room, and another Metroid. She dealt with this energy-based predator the same way she did the others. Once the Metroid was shattered into thousands of frozen fragments, she proceeded towards the door, which had a yellow blast shield erected over it. Knowing that only a Power Bomb would be able to breach this shield, Samus curled up into her Morph Ball mode and laid a Power Bomb at the base of the shield. She then backed away and waited for the Power Bomb to detonate. The bomb detonated in a massive sphere of energy and annihilated the shield. Samus made certain to be on the other side of the room when it detonated, for the Power Bomb was much like a tactical nuclear or matter-antimatter weapon that had initially been designed for massive demolition duty by the Chozo. Once the shield was collapsed, Samus ran back to the exit and made her way through the pentagonal door.

In the next corridor, she came across a long, winding staircase. Her HUD indicated the presence of several enemies in the room. She looked ahead and found more desiccated Space Pirate husks in the stairwell, obviously the signs of Metroid predation. As she continued down the staircase, she found the first of this stairwell's Metroids coming right at her. A quick Ice Beam shot and missile put down the Metroid, permanently neutralizing its threat. Making her way down the stairs, she quickly came upon two more Metroids. Two shots from her Ice Beam froze the creatures, causing them to fall to the ground. Two missiles later, the energy-based predators were nothing more than broken shards of ice.

Descending further down the stairs, she came across another pair of Metroids. Just like the others, upon sighting Samus, the predators charged towards her. Two Ice Beam shots and two missiles later, the Metroids were dead. After dealing with the second pair of Metroids, Samus reached the bottom of the stairwell. Once she reached the bottom, she came across three Metroids. These Metroids were significantly larger than the previous Metroids that she had encountered, but they were still not as large as the hatchling that she had spared had grown to become after devouring the life energy of so many Space Pirates and bioweapons on Zebes. Still, Samus decided to play it safe and charged her Ice Beam and proceeded to unleash a shot from her Ice Spreader. She knew that it would use ten missiles per use, but she believed that the cost was worth the reward of not having to deal with three large Metroids that might be able to thaw out quickly, forcing her to freezing and shattering one Metroid while the other two drained her and her suit of energy. She unleashed the Ice Spreader at the Metroids and the expanding wave of ice rushed towards the predatory creatures. In almost a second, the Ice Spreader shot struck the lead Metroid and instantly exploded, encasing it in ice. The icy explosion of the expanding wave of ice also managed to ensnare the other two Metroids in its blast radius as well, freezing all three Metroids in one solid block of ice. The bounty hunter then finished the job by unleashing a single missile at the block of ice. The missile leapt from her arm cannon and streaked towards the ice block, detonating upon impact. The explosion shattered the ice block, and the unfortunate Metroids inside as well. Once the Metroid threat had been dealt with, Samus went over to a door with a green blast shield. She grimaced, knowing that in order to breach the shield, she would need a Super Missile, and since she had used a noticeable number of missiles in the battles that brought her down to this area of the base, she wanted to make sure she had all the missiles that she could get a hold of for the later battles. She then stepped forward and charged a Super Missile. Once it was charged, she unleashed the missile at the shield and blew it off the door. Once the shield was gone, she fired a single shot from her Power Beam and collapsed the blue force field over the door. As she approached, the door then opened, granting her entry to what she hoped was the final stretch before reaching the Space Pirate leaders, and possibly Ridley. The bounty hunter then stepped through and into the next room.

Meanwhile, deeper inside the base, Mother Brain and Ridley watched as Samus blasted through the Metroids that had unfortunately eaten the Space Pirate security teams that had been dispatched to deal with the Hunter. Mother Brain gave an audible sigh and said, "Unfortunate," as the Metroids were being destroyed. Ridley had stronger feelings.

"What do you mean 'unfortunate'?" the Space Dragon roared. "Those were the only Metroids that we managed to clone, and we used up all of the Metroid DNA that we managed to retrieve from the Galactic Federation's cell cultures of Samus's Metroid DNA! Not only that, but more of our troops have been lost, and not even due to Samus's actions! Your little pets decided that they wanted to have a snack and so they decided to feast on our own people!"

"A few Space Pirate Troopers, Zebesians and a Torizo are not significant losses," Mother Brain chided, prompting Ridley to growl as he turned to face her.

"Be careful, Mother," Ridley warned in a sinister tone. "You don't have access to that metallic monstrosity of a body just yet. If you pick a fight with me, I'll…"

"That's enough!" came a voice from behind Mother Brain. Emerging from the darkness were two Space Pirate Commanders. The one on the right, the one who had spoken, then said, "Both of you, cool it! We have more important matters to attend to at the moment." Ridley bowed to the two Commanders, who both gave a respectful bow in return. Looking over at Mother Brain, the Commander on the right asked, "Mother, what are the chances that Samus Aran will be able to defeat us as we are right now?"

"Calculations indicate that Samus, as of yet, has a sixty-six percent chance of defeating us should she reach this far down into the base, given that we have not managed to create any Techno Soldiers, or managed to equip our soldiers with any of the newly developed and/or captured weaponry," the brain replied. "The only thing that would increase our chances of survival would be if Samus fought us all at once. However, chances are that we would sustain terrible losses and there is still a thirty percent chance that even if we all faced Samus Aran together, that we would lose the fight."

"Then what do you suggest?" the second Pirate Commander asked.

"The course of action that has the best chance of success is for us to evacuate immediately. We will have to do so quickly, though, and may have to leave the captives from the star liner behind. Once we evacuate the base and lift off, we order the _Siriacus_ to open fire on the surface and scuttle the base, hopefully eliminating all traces of Space Pirate activity on this world. In order to distract Samus until we are able to evacuate, we send one of our generals to keep her occupied; Phantoon would be the best bet. He is formidable on both defense and offense, and his loss would also not be nearly as damaging to the Space Pirates as a whole as the loss of myself, Ridley, or Kraid would be. He can keep Samus occupied and, with proper support from a Torizo or two, he might even have a chance at winning. In addition, since he is a ghost, Phantoon may be able to survive the destruction of the base, allowing us to return and reclaim him once Samus has left, or allow him to take over and capture a Galactic Federation or a Federation in Exile warship once they come to investigate."

The Space Pirate Commanders considered the plan. Eventually, they said, "Your plan has merit. We'll have to run it by the others first, but I think that it has a good chance of success. However, we won't allow the release of our few remaining Torizo and Golden Torizo to support Phantoon. Our Torizo and Golden Torizo are too valuable to lose especially in a sacrificial mission. If you want to send in backup for Phantoon, send in some basic Zebesians. _They_ are troopers that we can afford to lose if we must."

"Understood, sirs," Mother Brain responded.

"Begin preparations for evacuation at once!" the Pirate Commanders commanded. "Send in all unengaged Zebesians that we can! Send word to Phantoon that he is to engage Samus Aran at once!"

"Yes sir," the Pirates, Mother Brain, and Ridley responded in unison. "Tell High Command that the plan gets my vote," Ridley declared.

As the Space Pirate Commanders went back to discuss the plan with the rest of High Command, Ridley looked over into the shadows and said, "You two come to me now and stay. We will be among the last to leave."

Two figures then silently emerged from the shadows and stood before the mighty Space Dragon. They were human: one a male in what appeared to be his late forties to early fifties at the oldest, with the female seeming to be the same age. Both humans were in their mid fifties, though. Both humans wore white shirts and pants, and had metallic emblems that read, _K-2L_ on the upper left part of their chests. Both humans also wore gold rings with some sort of inscription on them on their ring fingers, indicating that they were married. The man had brown hair and gray eyes and stood at about six feet in height while the woman was about five foot ten and looked to be an older version of Samus. She had sandy blond hair that fell to just below her shoulders and blue eyes. Mother Brain saw the humans approach the Space Dragon and was obviously surprised, if the pulsating of her body was any indication. "What are you doing Ridley? The brainwashing isn't complete on them yet!"

"Quiet!" Ridley snapped. He then approached the brain and continued quietly, "It's sufficient for my purposes. Just make sure to remain here with me until the evacuation order is given. If Samus arrives sooner than expected, or Phantoon takes his sweet time getting here, we'll need to fight her."

"I'm not so sure about this," Mother Brain warned. "Humans can be remarkably strong-minded. And I doubt that they will be willing to fight their own daughter."

Ridley gave a smirk and turned to the two humans and commanded, "State your identification!"

"Techno Lord Blaster," the woman proclaimed in a clear, strong voice.

"Techno Lord Blade," the man declared in a loud, clear voice.

"Whom do you serve?"

"We serve the Space Pirates, under the command of Lord Ridley and Space Pirate High Command!" they responded in unison. This answer satisfied Ridley.

"See?" the Space Dragon asked as he turned to Mother Brain. The single eye of the organic supercomputer gave a tentative nod, indicating that she was partially satisfied by the demonstration. Ridley then turned back to his charges.

"An enemy is approaching wearing Chozo power armor," Ridley proclaimed. "You are to protect us and provide cover for us as we evacuate should she arrive before we expect her to until the arrival of Phantoon. Once Phantoon arrives, merely cover us and allow him to deal with Samus. Do you understand?"

"Yes, my lord!" they both responded loudly in unison.

They were about to transform into their armored forms when Ridley stopped them, saying, "Wait, don't transform yet. Wait until Samus arrives and has a chance to see you."

"Understood," they replied, bowing before Ridley, showing no signs of recognizing the name of Samus Aran, or that the mention of her name had any effect on them. Ridley grinned. They were the perfect weapons to use against Samus. He did not care if they were going to be sacrificed on this mission or not. All that mattered to the dragon was that Samus died. It would be especially sweet if especially if her parents also died again right in front of her eyes, preferably by her own hand just before Ridley killed her, or even better, _they_ killed Samus, just before he ordered them to transform back to normal and killed them once more, himself.

Not too far away from the Pirate command center, Samus trudged through another room. This room was filled with Geemers and Alcoons, bipedal dragon-like allies of the Space Pirates that were originally native to the planet Zebes. They had crimson-orange and purple skin, small stubby wings, and a tail, and could shoot fire. Before the destruction of Zebes, some of them had been taken from Zebes to ships and other planets so that they could be cloned and made into a secondary cannon fodder force that were stronger than normal Zebesians, but not as powerful as the stronger Zebesians and the Urtragian Space Pirate Troopers. Samus slaughtered the Geemers as she passed them, but at certain points, the Alcoons would jump out of their hiding places and attack her by shooting fire her way. The bounty hunter was too quick for them, though, and she managed to dodge their fireballs. A single charged Plasma Beam blast was more than sufficient to take out each Alcoon.

Once she had cleared the room, Samus charged her Plasma Beam and drew all of the exposed missiles and energy orbs towards her. Once they made contact with her suit, they were integrated into her suit's systems and replenished her ammunition and shield energy. She then proceeded to make her way towards the exit. Once she arrived at the exit, a single shot was more than enough to take down the shield over the door and grant her access to the next room.

Upon entering the next chamber, Samus was confronted with a large group of Zebesians, Alcoons, and even a couple Space Pirate Troopers as well. The chamber was a large area with multiple levels and even some lava pits. Many of them already had Zebesians, Alcoons, Dragons, red skinned creatures that were similar in appearance to Alcoons, but resided in the magma pools and lacked legs that would allow them to walk on the ground. Immediately upon sighting the bounty hunter, they opened fire on her. A torrent of blue energy pulses and fireballs came Samus's way and there were far too many for her to be able to dodge completely. In order to try to limit the damage, though, she curled up into her Morph Ball mode and laid a Power Bomb on the ground. She remained in Morph Ball mode since, for reasons she did not know, she was protected by her Power Bomb's detonation in this form. Sure enough, the Power Bomb detonated and took out all of the enemies on the ground floor, and many of the enemies on the second and third tiers of the room as well. That did not stop the others from either shooting down towards Samus from their perches, or jumping down to join the fray.

Four Alcoons burst forth from the ground and proceeded to pepper Samus's Morph Ball form with fireballs and streams of fire. Samus uncurled herself and somersaulted towards them, plowing through them as she Screw Attacked into them, the energy field produced by the attack shredding any and all enemies she came into contact with. Still, while Samus was able to clear out the remaining enemies on the ground, as well as those who jumped down to take the fight to her, with ease, she still had the others above her to deal with, and she knew that she could not afford to let them keep nipping at her heels as she proceeded towards the Pirates' command center.

The armored warrior then turned her attention towards dealing with the Space Pirates and other enemies pelting her from above. As she dashed to and fro, avoiding staying in one spot for any length of time in order to make herself as difficult a target to hit as possible, she locked onto formations of enemies, Dragon, Alcoon, Zebesian Space Pirate, etcetera, and fired missiles at them. The missiles streaked from her arm cannon and struck at the heart of the ranks and squadrons of the Space Pirates, gouging massive holes in their ranks. Cries could be heard as the missiles exploded and killed numerous Space Pirates and sentient allies. Those that survived at first formed new squadrons and teams in order to better concentrate their fire on the Hunter. This proved to be a fatal mistake for many of them, for this merely made it easier for Samus to kill them with missile strikes. She sent another volley of missiles their way and more Pirates, Kihunters, and others were blown apart. That still left some Pirates, though, who were beginning to realize that they had a better chance survival apart than together. As such, they stayed away from each other as they pelted Samus with energy blasts and plasma missiles. Unfortunately, for them, this only extended their lifespans by ten seconds or so, for that was how long it took for Samus to draw individual beads on them and shoot them with her Plasma Beam. Once the battle was over, the bounty hunter casually made her way to the room's exit, shot the blast shield, and proceeded through the now open door that led to the corridor that led to the Pirate command center leaving a large force of dead Zebesians, Alcoons, and Kihunters in her wake.

The corridor that led to the Space Pirate command center was full of turrets and Rinka projectors. As soon as Samus set foot inside the corridor, red and green rings of energy emerged from the projectors and homed in on the bounty hunter. In addition to the Rinkas, the ceiling and floor were littered with countless energy and projectile turrets. The projectile turrets shot explosive rounds that would have been death to unarmored and lightly armored opponents, but the shields of Samus's Power Suit were more than strong enough to protect her from the solid projectile fire of the turrets. Her shields glowed electric blue as the explosive projectiles struck them but inflicted no damage. The energy turrets, however, fired far more dangerous energy projectiles that _were_ capable of inflicting damage to Samus's shields. While the damage from an individual strike was not very severe, with only three units of energy being lost with each strike, each hit would add up.

Remembering from her previous battles that no more than one Rinka could be fired or active from a projector at any given time, she switched to her Ice Beam and targeted the red and green energy rings. Each ring was frozen by a single blast from the bounty hunter's Ice Beam. One by one, each Rinka was frozen in midair and, unlike Metroids or other flying enemies, they did not fall to the ground upon being frozen. After the final Rinka had been frozen, Samus targeted the energy turrets. Switching to her Plasma Beam, she targeted each turret and fired a single blast of plasma at each of them. The orange plasma burned through the metal turrets melting them instantly, leaving molten drops of metal falling. One by one, the bounty hunter destroyed the turrets, neutralizing the corridor's defenses. As she continued to make her way through the corridor, the bounty hunter annihilated turrets and froze Rinkas in rapid succession. In less than a minute, she had cleared the room, leaving nothing but the molten wreckage of turrets and frozen Rinkas behind her. At the end of the room, she approached the door and, after blasting the blue blast shield, she entered the Space Pirate command center.

The Space Pirate command center was a large, circular room full of computers and various consoles. The room was dark, though, indicating that the room had since been abandoned. The fact that the defenses seemed to be rather sparse, with only four Space Pirate Troopers being visible to the bounty hunter, seemed to support the notion that the Pirates were evacuating once more. This caused Samus to worry about the captives that were going to try to retake the _Adventure in the Stars_. The Space Pirate Troopers quickly sighted Samus and began opening fire on her, crying, "It's the Hunter! She's here!" Their fire was wild and Samus had no difficulty making her way behind an unoccupied console to use for cover without taking a single hit. This forced Samus to focus on them, rather than where the rest of the surviving Space Pirate leadership had gone.

Not wanting to waste any missiles on a quartet of basic troopers, Samus switched to her Plasma Beam and charged it. Once it was charged, she scanned the area for a Space Pirate that had not taken cover. She found one who was a little too adventurous for his own good as he emerged from behind a large computer console to take a shot at the bounty hunter. The Hunter got her shot off first, though, and before the Space Pirate Trooper could fire his energy rifle, he was blown apart by the shot from Samus's Plasma Beam. The Pirate's entire torso disappeared upon impact with the beam, leaving nothing but smoking and burning arms, legs, and the upper half of a head. Samus quickly ducked behind her console as a few blue pulses of energy sailed past her, with the rest of them striking the console in an attempt to inflict some sort of damage on the bounty hunter. Samus quickly charged another plasma blast and emerged from cover to take down another Space Pirate Trooper. This blast annihilated the unfortunate Pirate's head and upper torso, leaving the rest of the body to fall over backwards. The bounty hunter quickly ducked behind the console once more to avoid the volley of return fire from the Space Pirates. She repeated the process two more times and with the final plasma shot, she felled the final Space Pirate Trooper.

Once she felled the Space Pirate Troopers, she approached the center of the room some of the lights activated. As she approached, she noticed the outline of a large pterodactyl-like creature in the shadows. The creature soon stepped forward, revealing himself to be Samus's nemesis: Ridley. The two scowled at each other as each sighted the other.

"I must say, Samus, I'm surprised that you managed to reach here so quickly," Ridley said in a sinister tone. The lights soon activated and the entire room was illuminated. Behind Ridley was the massive multi-story high form of Kraid, and an organic brain sitting inside a stasis tank that Samus recognized all too well as being Mother Brain, or at the very least a clone of her. "But this is where your adventure ends." Ridley turned to the massive Kraid, and told him, "Kraid, take Mother Brain and get her to the heavy freighter. We've already modified it to carry beings like us. I'll take care of the Hunter."

Kraid, a three-eyed green reptilian bipedal beast with two arms and three dagger-like claws that emerged from his stomach and could be launched at enemies, grabbed Mother Brain's stasis tube and began to take her into a corridor behind the command center. Ridley glanced behind him and, after making sure that Kraid and Mother Brain would not be involved in the fighting, began his fight with Samus by unleashing a wave of plasma towards the bounty hunter. Samus dove out of the way of the stream of plasma and charged a Super Missile. Once the missile was charged, she unleashed the Super Missile towards the massive Space Dragon. However, before the missile managed to strike the dragon, an energy blast intercepted the missile and detonated it prematurely. Samus's eyes went wide with shock at the sight, and a feeling of anxiety entered her heart as she saw Ridley grin as he took a couple steps backwards.

Samus grimaced and switched to her Wave Beam. She charged her Wave Beam in preparation to use her Wavebuster when two human figures quickly stepped out in front of Ridley and held their arms out, shielding the massive Space Dragon. Samus recoiled in surprise and promptly powered down her Wave Beam as she saw that the humans that were defending her nemesis were none other than her own parents. Samus took a hesitant step backwards, her eyes wide with confusion and shock. This could not be. Her parents were Techno Lords under the command of the N'Kren and the Ylla. The only organization that might control them would be the Galactic Federation, which hated the Space Pirates. There was no way that they would willingly serve the Space Pirates, even if they found out about Cyrus's dark secrets. "Mother, Father," she said faintly towards the two humans shielding Ridley as the dragon laughed.

"Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. What are you gonna do now, Hunter?" Ridley mocked. "You can't get at me without going through your own parents. However, I can merely do this!" And as soon as Ridley had finished, he unleashed a massive stream of plasma towards Samus.

"No!" Samus cried as he unleashed his attack, fearing that he would incinerate her parents in an attempt to damage her. Much to her dread, the plasma _did_ wash over her parents as Ridley attempted to kill Samus with a single attack. The shock of seeing Ridley attack her parents like that caused her to freeze for a moment, allowing Ridley to focus the full brunt of his plasma breath onto the bounty hunter. Samus took the full force of the attack and lost half of an Energy Tank from the attack. Her shields glowed as they strained under the assault, but they managed to hold. Once the attack stopped, Samus looked at the location where her parents once stood and found two armored figures, one wearing gold armor and equipped with multiple bladed weapons, and the other with silver armor and equipped with what looked to be multiple cannons and energy projectors. Samus breathed a sigh of relief as she saw that her parents had managed to transform into Techno Lords before Ridley's plasma breath had incinerated them. The Space Dragon grimaced. "Damn," he swore, angry that the Hunter's parents had managed to transform before his attack had struck. He then began to grin as he told the Techno Lords, "Fine, if you are so eager to fight, then fight! Kill Samus Aran!"

However, the Techno Lords did not budge. They merely stood in front of Ridley as if they were metallic statues. Ridley's eyes went wide with shock and anger. "What the hell are you metal idiots doing? Kill her!"

Still, the two Techno Lords did not make a move. It was obvious to Samus that they were fighting whatever force was controlling them. This only fueled Ridley's rage. "Come on! Move your butts and attack!"

"No," came the response from Blaster.

"What?" Ridley roared. "You dare to defy me?"

Blaster shook her head. "No, my lord." She then paused for a moment before looking upwards. "Phantoon has arrived. As per our orders, we must retreat with the rest of High Command and abandon this world at once," she told him, as if she were a messenger for High Command.

Ridley grimaced. The two Techno Lords then approached the Space Dragon. "My lord," Blade began, "we must leave now. Phantoon can deal with the Hunter."

Ridley looked back at Samus, who still did not dare to unleash an attack towards the Space Dragon as long as the two Techno Lords were near, for she did not know how useful her improved weaponry would be against the armor of the Techno Lords and she did not want to risk accidentally killing her parents. Eventually, Ridley saw the wisdom of the orders of the Techno Lords and stepped back with them. But he would not leave before giving Samus his parting words. "Looks like our battle will have to wait, Samus. But don't worry. Should you somehow survive all of this, I'll be waiting. And you'll even get to see your parents again before you, and they, die." With that, the Space Dragon retreated through an opening that led to another section of the base. She then saw Ridley begin to fly upwards, followed quickly by her parents, who were obviously under some form of brainwashing.

Samus made ready to follow them when a black force field appeared over the opening to the corridor. Samus quickly stopped and went to check her HUD, since the appearance of a force field was often a prelude to the appearance of an enemy. She soon saw a large red blip appear on her HUD indicating that the enemy was appearing in the center of the room. Looking into the center of the room, she found a massive being materializing in front of her. A being that somewhat resembled a giant squid, only with just two tentacles, two massive jaws, one of them covering a massive yellow eye, and another on the bottom of the beast. Samus instantly recognized the beast as being Phantoon. However, this Phantoon was much larger than the previous one that she had battled. She activated her Scan Visor and scanned the creature. The scan read, _Morphology – Phantoon. This spectral being can phase into and out of reality. Its attacks consist of summoning ghostly hands called Rage Hands to attack Samus, as well as creating Phantom Eyes, eyes that are covered in a supernatural blue flame and home in on Samus. Phantoon is only vulnerable to attack when its eyes is open and it is de-phased. Scan indicates that Phantoon is a genetically enhanced clone of the original Phantoon which perished on Zebes_.

Samus did not know how it was possible to clone a ghost, and she did not care. She knew that she had no choice but to take care of Phantoon. She proceeded to charge her Wave Beam and went to take the fight to the ghost.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

As Samus charged her Wave Beam, Phantoon released a volley of Phantom Eyes towards Samus. The eyes were launched from the ghost's large, yellow eye, which was open at the moment. In addition, several Rage Hands were also summoned to the battle and made their way towards Samus.

The bounty hunter dove out of the way of the spectral hands, but she happened to dive right into a volley of Phantom Eyes, which took out the remaining half of her Energy Tank. Samus did not mind, though. She still had nineteen more tanks. She then rushed towards the ghost as he was unleashing more Phantom Eyes and fired her Wavebuster at its eye. The stream of electricity reached out and struck the eye, causing the ghost to roar and convulse in pain. Samus withstood another volley of Phantom Eyes, which took off another Energy Tank, but she kept up the attack against Phantoon. The ghost writhed in agony and cried, attempting to attack, and when unable to due to the pain, tried to phase, but was unable to do so due to the paralyzing effect of the Wavebuster. As Samus kept up the pressure, she watched as her missile supply dwindled. She had already used up fifty missiles and was using five missiles per for each second she kept the Wavebuster active. But the damage the Wavebuster and its paralyzing effects were well worth the cost in missiles.

The bounty hunter kept up the pressure and lightning began to arc across not only the ghost's eye, but across its entire body. Eventually, the ghost had taken all that it could. Phantoon gave a cry and its eye exploded into globs of yellowish liquid. The body of Phantoon then rose into the air and began to crack. Light then emerged from the cracks and the ghost exploded in a magnificent display of light. Samus then checked her missile inventory and saw that she only had a hundred missiles left. That was not a problem, though, for her sensors detected no further Space Pirate presence in the vicinity.

After defeating Phantoon, the bounty hunter scanned the command center for any sign of the prisoners. She went over to one of the consoles, which was still functioning, and scanned it. The writing on the console was written in the Space Pirates' native language, but her suit's translation software was able to translate the writing. It indicated that the prisoners were being held within several cages in secret rooms that surrounded the command center. She activated her Scan Visor and began to hack the computer so she could free the prisoners. As she did so, lights flickered on the console, as well as on several other consoles as well. After a few seconds, the lights stopped flashing and several metallic walls disappeared, revealing translucent blue fields of energy that confined the captured crewmembers and passengers of the _Adventure in the Stars_. Glancing at the faces of the prisoners, she could see the terror, dread, and uncertainty that they undoubtedly felt. The instructions appeared on the HUD as she scanned the console for the controls for the force field. She found them in the right corner of the console and she pushed a red button, which deactivated the force field that confined the prisoners. The force fields disappeared and the prisoners were free to move.

Samus walked towards one of the groups of prisoners and as she approached them, she saw their terrified faces and stopped, holding out her left hand in a non-hostile gesture, and said in a calm voice, "Don't worry. I'm not with the Space Pirates. My name is Samus Aran. I am an independent bounty hunter currently allied with the Galactic Federation in Exile."

Her admission that she was siding with the Galactic Federation in Exile seemed to calm some of the freed captives, but others merely scowled at her. "An ally of the Magic Lords, then," one of the men seethed, which brought a scowl of disapproval from some of the other prisoners.

"I am an enemy of the Magic Lords and fought two of them for the survival of Earth," she said forcefully in answer to the accusation. "Anyway, we can't let any of our political differences or allegiances keep us from getting out of here. We have to get out of this base now, before the Pirates abandon it and tell their frigate in orbit to scuttle the base."

Some of the prisoners still scowled and seemed to refuse to move, but others pushed their way towards the bounty hunter and stood with her. Turning back to the others, one of them, a woman of Middle Eastern descent rebuked those who appeared to be siding with the Galactic Federation proper, saying, "You fools! Are you really so hateful towards those who are still willing to fight for the lives of six billion people that you would rather stay here and die than put aside your differences with our rescuer and get out of here? What does it matter which side of the conflict Samus is on? She saved us! If we stay here, we're going to die! I don't know about you, but when I get a chance to escape certain meaningless death, I take it! If you want to stay behind and abandon your families, then fine, do it. I'm going!"

That speech was more than enough for many of the prisoners to shove their way past those who were still considering their course of action and stood by Samus, who was already beginning to direct them to stay behind her while she led the way out of the base. Eventually, the rest of the prisoners saw the folly of remaining inside a doomed base that had been in the clutches of one of the greatest enemies of the Galactic Federation and they proceeded to follow the others who were following Samus.

Before leaving the base, Samus looked back and took a quick headcount. She was relieved to find that all one hundred freed captives were following her. She told them, "I'll lead the way just in case the Space Pirates left some stragglers behind to slow us down."

The others had no problems with Samus's plan, so they all formed up in a double file line behind her so the line would not get too long and they could watch their backs, just in case a Pirate attacked from behind. Before leaving, though, Samus looked around the command center to see if there were any discarded weapons that could be used by any of the survivors for rearguard duty. Much to her surprise, and relief, there was an energy pistol that looked to have been left in the command center inadvertently. It was different from any other Space Pirate energy pistol that she had ever seen, though. In fact, it looked like it had been designed for use by a human, rather than by any of the species affiliated with the Space Pirates. However, knowing that the Space Pirates could have left it as a trap, she decided to scan the pistol before handing it to any of the captives. Her scans indicated that there was no tampering with the pistol, but that its energy charge was pretty low and only had enough energy for about sixteen shots at best. One thing that stood out to her was the power level of the shots inside the pistol. The shots seemed to be as powerful as her standard uncharged Power Beam shots, which themselves were twice as strong as her previous Power Beam shots. Grabbing the pistol, Samus went to the back of the line and handed the pistol to a Caucasian male in his early forties. As she handed it to him, she told him, "Watch our backs. I'll handle all threats up front. But be careful, my scans indicate that that pistol's load is only sixteen shots, so don't waste them."

"Got it," the man said as he took his position as Samus went to lead the others out of the base.

The bounty hunter approached the door that led to the exit at the rear of the command center. She fired a single blast of energy from her Power Beam and collapsed the blue shield over the door. Once the door opened, she ushered the rest of the prisoners through. One by one, the prisoners made their way through, with Samus having gone through first in order to take care of any Space Pirates that may have stayed behind to try to either slow her down or deny her a complete victory by killing some of the freed captives. So far, though, there were no Space Pirate stragglers for her to deal with, merely seeing a long tunnel out in front of her, so she merely waited for the others to get through the door before continuing on her way. Once the others had made it through the door, she led the way down the dark tunnel.

As she made her way down the tunnel, she switched to her Light Beam and charged it, not only in order to prepare herself should a powerful enemy come out and attack, but also in order to illuminate the surrounding area, which the Light Beam did a very good job of. To the prisoners, it was as if the tunnel were now fully lit, for they could see all the way down the corridor. Samus knew that this would attract any enemies that might have been hiding in ambush, but it would also reveal them to her and the others. As they continued down the tunnel, there was still no sign of any Space Pirates whatsoever. It was not long before the group came to an incline in the corridor. Though the incline was relatively steep, it did not affect Samus at all. The other captives, however, did not have Samus's genetic enhancements or training, though, and they were much slower in climbing the hill. The hunter slowed her pace, allowing the others to keep up. She continued to scan just ahead of her, just incase any Pirates were lying in wait.

As the group neared the top of the incline, Samus went on ahead to clear the path. As she reached the crest of the incline, she found four Space Pirate Troopers standing close to a large cargo turbolift. Having already charged her Light Beam, she decided that now was the time to let loose with a Light Missile. She fired the missile and a golden missile of light was unleashed upon the Space Pirates from her arm cannon. The Pirates were blinded by the light of the missile as it rocketed towards them at hypersonic speeds. The missile scored a direct hit on the lead Pirate and detonated into a massive explosion of light. The light washed over the Pirates and caused them incredible pain as they writhed in the bath of pure, golden light. The light soon congealed into a series of golden orbs and zeroed in on each of the individual Pirates and struck them, exploding upon impact. The Pirates were bathed in a flood of golden light once more and were instantly annihilated, armor and all, by the Light Missile. Samus checked her missile gauge and saw that despite the damage done to the Space Pirate squadron, the Light Missile had only consumed five missiles. She grinned. It seemed as if the Light Missile had proven its worth. And if the Light Beam, and by extension, the Light Missile, was truly designed to destroy evil enemies, then she had a perfect weapon for fighting the Magic Lords and other enemies that might have strong resistance to conventional weaponry.

The captives soon crested the hill and approached the bounty hunter, who had charged her Light Beam once more in order to illuminate the area. The group looked ahead and saw a large turbolift that looked to be able to hold many of them at any given time. Samus went over to the turbolift to see if it was still functional. Scanning the elevator car, she found that it was fully functional and that it could hold around thirty of the captives, along with Samus, herself, safely. Samus and the first thirty captives then went to board the elevator. The doors slid open and the group then filed onto the lift. The doors closed and the lift proceeded to rise.

The ride lasted for almost thirty seconds, during which time, the group encountered no difficulties at all. The ride was quite smooth, much more so than either Samus, or any of the other prisoners, would have expected. After thirty seconds, the lift opened and revealed a large cavern that Samus's map indicated was on the first floor, and that led to the exit of the base. Stepping out, she directed the others to remain onboard the lift for a bit until it was clear. She charged her Light Beam, just in case there were more Space Pirates coming. Sure enough, two Space Pirate Troopers jumped out and fired a series of blue energy pulses towards the bounty hunter. Normally, Samus would have dodged the aim of the Troopers and allowed the blasts to sail past her, but with a group of civilians to protect, that was not an option. Instead, she allowed the blasts to strike her shields and she suffered only one point of damage per hit. She retaliated with a blast from her Light Beam. A large ball of light struck the Space Pirate Trooper on the right and exploded upon making contact with the Trooper. The explosion of light washed over both Space Pirates, with the excess light congealing into small orbs of light and swirling back towards the Space Pirate Troopers. The light orbs struck the troopers and annihilated all of the organic tissue, leaving nothing behind except for the armor of the troopers, which promptly collapsed into a pile of metal. Samus then activated her Scan Visor and took scans of the area in order to make sure that there were no other enemy soldiers in the area. Her scans quickly came back negative and she viewed it as safe to allow the rest of the civilians to come up. It took three subsequent trips to bring up the rest of the civilians from the lower levels of the base, but eventually, each group made it up to the first level of the base and once they were all assembled once more, Samus led the others through the cave and towards the exit.

Meanwhile, during Samus's escape of the base, the Space Pirate leaders were riding a large loading skiff towards a grounded heavy freighter that was patiently awaiting their arrival. Kraid and Mother Brain were lying on the skiff while Ridley and his Techno Lords were flying above, providing cover for the Space Pirate forces. They doubted that they would face any resistance, for Samus was undoubtedly busy freeing the rest of the captives, assuming that she had not been killed by Phantoon. The two Space Pirate Troopers that were piloting the skiff also had life force sensors that allowed them to monitor the life force of all of the Space Pirate generals. There were images of Mother Brain, Ridley, Kraid, and Phantoon, with Crocomire and Draygon's signatures having gone dark. Phantoon's signature soon joined Crocomire and Draygon's signals in going dark. The copilot turned back to Mother Brain and informed her, "Mother, I regret to inform you that Phantoon has been slain in combat, almost certainly by the Hunter."

Mother Brain was silent for a few moments, prompting the copilot to cock his head inquisitively. Eventually, Mother Brain sighed, "A pity." She said nothing more, but the tone of her voice indicated that the loss of Phantoon was not significant in her mind. The copilot then returned his focus on assisting in the piloting of the skiff, which was fast approaching the large freighter in the distance. Ridley, however, was less than pleased. While he did not have any particular attachment to Phantoon, he did not like the nonchalant attitude that Mother Brain had towards the loss of Crocomire, Draygon, and now Phantoon. Still, he did not start an argument with her yet. He would save that for when they got onboard the freighter.

After a couple minutes, the skiff arrived at the freighter, which was a large flat vessel about two hundred meters long that had two dozen large, bulky cargo containers attached to the sides of the vessel. The ship, itself, was not all that tall, only about two levels, but the cargo containers were quite tall, at least five or so stories. They were more than capable of holding all of the materiel and equipment for constructing a new base for the Space Pirates. The freighter was also able to hold all of the remaining Space Pirates, but since their numbers were so low, it merely held about two hundred Space Pirate Troopers along with the leaders and a few Kihunters for the crew. The rest of the remaining Space Pirates were stationed onboard the _Siriacus_. As the skiff approached, it slowed down until one of the cargo containers opened and allowed the skiff to enter. A ramp extended from the cargo container, allowing the skiff to board the ship. The skiff then proceeded to carefully board the freighter, followed closely by Ridley and the two Techno Lords.

As soon as the Pirate leaders had boarded the freighter, the boarding ramp retracted. As the ramp retracted, the Techno Lords powered down to their normal human forms and went to board the ship, proper, in order to assist in its takeoff. Several Space Pirates of High Command then came into the cargo container and said, "Lord Ridley, Mother Brain your presence is required on the bridge of the ship."

"Understood," Ridley answered for the two of them. The Pirate Commanders then turned and went through the small hatch towards the ship, proper. They were quickly followed by Ridley, along with Mother Brain, whose stasis tank was being pushed by two Space Pirate Troopers. As they were walking, Ridley told the Commanders, "Tell the bridge that as soon as we lift off, tell the _Siriacus_ to destroy the base and then target the civilian ship, the _Adventure in the Stars_. The captives will have almost certainly taken the ship by now, and I want to make sure that it is destroyed before we leave. I don't want any human survivors from this."

"Understood, Lord Ridley," the Commanders said, and they proceeded to contact the bridge so that it could relay Ridley's orders to the frigate.

Samus and the others rushed through the rocky corridor, making their way forward as they rushed to exit the base. On and on the group went, Samus having to restrain herself so that the others would not fall behind. It was more difficult than it appeared, for she was accustomed to moving through Space Pirate bases as quickly as possible as she evacuated said base. It helped, though, that there was no time bomb at this base, so there was no real pressure that she was aware of. However, she was keenly aware of the Space Pirate frigate in orbit of the planet and that a single blast from its weapons could annihilate this entire base, as well as the surrounding area. As they continued, the group eventually came to a wall that looked to be a dead end. They did not come this far just to be stopped now, though. Samus had the perfect way for her to get through this barrier. She had the others stand back as she somersaulted towards the rocky barrier and plowed through it with her Screw Attack. After plowing through the barrier, she came across another door with a blue blast shield. Firing a single blast from her Wave Beam, she collapsed the shield and the door opened as she walked into the doorway. She then stood in the door in order to keep it open as the captives proceeded to file after her. Once they arrived, she proceeded on through and waited as they filed through the door one by one. Once the captives were all through, the group continued on its way.

On the other side of the door, the others recognized that they were now once more in the initial entry hall of the base. The mouth of the cave was close. Samus ran to the mouth of the cave and activated her Speed Booster, plowing through the final barrier and opening a path to the final door. Finally, Samus was outside the base, and back on the surface of the planet. She was quickly followed by the captives, who quickly filed out of the base, one by one. As each of the captives passed, she quickly checked them in order to make sure that they were all in good condition. So far, all of the captives that she had freed were still in good condition. _Good_, she thought. They were okay. She then looked over at the _Adventure in the Stars_, which was only a couple hundred meters away. Past the ruins of the mountain, she saw a large freighter beginning to lift off. Samus knew that the freighter likely contained the Space Pirate leaders, Mother Brain, Ridley, and Kraid. With the ship taking off, she knew that they did not have a lot of time to board the _Adventure_ and get it off the ground before the frigate would scuttle the base, and them as well. With that thought, Samus and the others made their way towards the captured star cruise liner. They did not have a lot of time before the frigate would likely be given the order to scuttle the base.

Samus ran to the open boarding ramp of the star liner and ushered everyone onboard. As each of the crewmembers and passengers passed, she quickly checked to make sure that they were okay. She also activated her X-Ray Visor to make sure that there were no cloaked Space Pirates that were waiting for the perfect chance to board the ship and recapture it. Fortunately, there were none. In addition, her suit's early warning sensors indicated that there were no Space Pirates in the vicinity, either. Once everyone was onboard the ship, the boarding ramp began to close. As the ramp closed, she heard a quiet hum that stared to get louder and rise in pitch. The ship was powering up. She quickly used her Command Visor to decloak her starship and rushed towards it. The canopy opened and the bounty hunter quickly jumped into the ship's cockpit. Once she was inside, she closed the canopy, raised her ship's shields and powered its weapons. Checking her loadout, she found that she still had four cluster seeker missiles, along with two anti-starship missiles and two matter-antimatter Nova Missiles. The Nova Missiles were heavy missiles designed specifically for destroying capital starships. They were the strongest anti-capital starship weapon that could be fielded by starfighters, and only a few starfighters were designed to be able to wield such weapons. As such, they were extremely valuable, for a volley of such missiles would be sufficient to take down the shields of a cruiser. And if they managed to hit in the right place, two such missiles could strip the shields off of a frigate if they managed to strike near a weak point in the shields and possibly even inflict severe damage to the ship itself. After her checks were completed, Samus proceeded to takeoff. Her ship rose from the ground and once she was a few dozen feet into the air, it turned on its axis and, pointing straight up into space, she gunned the engines and the ship shot towards the Space Pirate frigate as if it had been shot from a cannon.

Meanwhile, onboard the heavy freighter, Ridley watched from his chair the bridge as Samus was ushering the freed captives towards the _Adventure in the Stars_. He grimaced. Now was the time that he wished that the freighter had been outfitted with weapons more than ever. All he could do was watch as Samus led the freed captives onto the captured star liner. One of the officers, a Space Pirate Trooper manning the navigation station behind the dragon and a little above him called over to him and said, "Sir, we have lifted off from the ground and are underway. We should breach the atmosphere in a few minutes."

Ridley gave a small grumble. He then turned to the communications officer to his left and commanded, "Open a channel to the _Siriacus_ and tell them to scuttle the base and the captured star liner. Once that's finished, tell them to regroup with us and follow us to Earth."

"At once, Lord Ridley," the officer responded. As the officer went to relay the Space Pirate commander's order, Ridley gave a smirk. At least he would be able to see the civilian star liner be destroyed, and possibly witness Samus's reaction to a failure. He then gave a soft chuckle as the freighter rose higher into the atmosphere.

Onboard the frigate, _Siriacus_, the message came in over the comm channels. "It's a go, Commander P'Vash," the voice of a Space Pirate Commander echoed over the bridge. "Scuttle the base and the civilian star liner we captured."

"Understood, my lord," the Space Pirate Commander said in reply, bowing before the image on the forward viewscreen. Turning to the weapons officer behind him, he said, "Lieutenant A'Dak, we're clear. Target the captured star liner and our base and destroy the both of them."

"Understood, Commander," the weapons officer, an unarmored Urtragian Space Pirate Trooper answered in reply.

The Pirate set the ship's weapons to full power and proceeded to begin targeting the massive star liner. The sensors showed the star liner beginning its ascent. The ship's thrusters fired and sent up clouds of dust and threw rocks out from underneath the ship. Crosshairs soon appeared on the forward viewscreen a little to the right of the star liner. They began to move as the weapons officer adjusted the angle of the cannons and they began to center in on the cruise ship. As they did so, a chime began to sound and the crosshairs turned yellow. After a few seconds, the crosshairs lined up with the center of the _Adventure in the Stars_ and they began to turn blue. As they turned blue, the chime began to become more steady until it was solid tone. As soon as the tone was solid, P'Vash cried, "Now, fire!"

The forward cannons of the _Siriacus_ unleashed a torrent of energy towards the _Adventure_. Several of the blasts managed to sail past the cruise ship and struck the ground. Those that struck the ground then exploded as the confinement streams that contained the energy breached. The blasts were visible from the bridge of the Space Pirate frigate. P'Vash and the rest of the bridge crew marveled at the sight as a massive ball of fire expanded from the epicenter of those blasts and continued to expand even after the Space Pirate base was nothing but lava and vapor. The eyes of the bridge crew went wide as the fireball continued to expand, but soon, something happened that forced them to take their eyes off the viewscreen. The sensor officer took a casual glance down at his console and saw a small that the _Adventure in the Stars_ was still intact. He called out to the Space Pirate Commander, yelling, "Commander P'Vash, sir, I'm still picking up the _Adventure in the Stars_ on my sensors. Sensors indicate that its shields are up and are still at sixty percent."

"Damn it!" P'Vash swore. "On screen!"

The image switched from the still expanding fireball, which had reached over three hundred kilometers in radius, to the star liner. The ship was rising above the firestorm that had been produced by the explosion of the energy bolts that had struck the surface of the planet. As P'Vash looked closely at the star liner, he thought he saw another shape flying with the large civilian cruise ship in the corner of the screen. He thought nothing of it as he looked back to the weapons officer and commanded, "Target that star liner and destroy it!"

"Yes, sir," the weapons officer answered with a note of sadistic pleasure in his voice. However, before he could fire, the ship shuddered. The bridge crew struggled to maintain their footing as the ship shook from what appeared to be a weapons impact. The weapons officer then pushed the fire button to unleash the next volley of energy fire that would hopefully destroy the civilian starship. Nothing happened. The officer pushed the button again, but none of the main cannons fired.

"What's going on, Lieutenant A'Dak?" P'Vash roared. "Why haven't you destroyed that ship?"

The officer glanced down at the weapons console and saw that the forward cannons had suffered damage and that there was damage in the firing control systems. "Sir, we've suffered damage to our main cannons!" A'Dak cried in response. "They aren't moving and I can no longer fire them!"

"How?" P'Vash screamed. "That star liner doesn't have any weapons!"

"No sir, but the Hunter's starfighter does," came the response from one of the other members of the bridge crew. The crew turned to the Pirate Trooper, who pointed at the corner of the viewscreen. The ship shook again as a small dot began to grow. Indeed, it was Samus's gunship. The ship fired a series of energy pulses from its forward cannons and the ship shook again.

P'Vash cursed at the sight of the ship. "Damage!" he roared.

"Superficial," came the response from the sensor officer. "So far, we haven't suffered any further damage."

P'Vash breathed a sigh of relief at the report. Turning once again to the tactical officer, he called out in a much calmer voice, "Raise shields immediately! Then target the Hunter's ship and blow it out of the stars!"

"Yes sir," A'Dak responded. He then went to set up the shields. A bar on the console that represented the shield level began to rise, but as soon as it reached about sixty to sixty-three percent, it stopped and began to fluctuate. "Sir," A'Dak called to the Commander, "the shields are only getting up to sixty percent or so! They must have suffered damage in the initial attack."

P'Vash swore again. "Then focus our shields onto the forward arc. The Hunter's gunship is armed with heavy weapons. We can't afford to underestimate it." He then turned to his communications officer and commanded, "Comm, call in the support squadron. Get our ATCs and starfighter support over here now!"

"Yes, sir," the communications officer responded.

As the officer went to call in reinforcements, P'Vash told A'Dak, "Ready all point defense weapons, target that ship. I want it destroyed!"

A'Dak tried to get a weapons lock onto the ship, but he could not see it on sensors, despite the fact that it was strafing the frigate with energy fire. "Sir, the ship must have stealth capability; the sensors can't get a lock."

"Then switch to manual then! I want that ship destroyed!"

"Yes, sir," A'Dak replied. He then switched the point defense cannons to manual and sent the signal to the gunners that it was their show. All the while, P'Vash looked out at the viewscreen and grinned. Samus Aran was picking a fight with the _Siriacus_. Despite the fact that it was a research frigate, rather than a combat frigate like the _Chimera_ had been, this was a big target for what amounted to a modified starfighter to take down. He did not doubt for a second that the only reason that Samus was attacking the _Siriacus_ was so that she could cover the escape of the civilian star liner. That prompted him to grin. He knew that she would remain to battle the frigate until either the civilian ship was safely away. And he knew that it would take the destruction of the _Siriacus_ to keep the frigate away from the civilian ship. All he could do now was watch the battle unfold, and wait for the gunners to get a lucky hit in on Samus's ship, or the reinforcements to arrive and finish her off, or drive her away so he could destroy the _Adventure_.

Outside the frigate, Samus's starship maneuvered out of the line of fire of a point defense cannon. The cannon sprayed a volley of sapphire energy bolts towards her ship, but she managed to keep ahead of the cannon's sweep. She soon returned fire with her forward energy cannons and sprayed scarlet bolts of energy against the frigate's shields. As expected, her energy bolts inflicted no damage to the shields, however, as she performed her run, several of her energy beams managed to score hits on the hull on the aft part of the ship. A few of the point defense cannons in the aft half of the ship were hit and a few exploded, inflicting more hull damage to the ship. After the first few bolts hit, the shields were raised over the aft half of the ship and the rest of her energy bolts inflicted no damage. However, the attack told Samus all that she needed to know, and her scans of the ship also bore out her thoughts. Her initial attack run on the ship had inflicted damage not only to the main cannons of the frigate, but also to its shields. She scanned the ship again and saw that the shields of the frigate were only up to fifty-five percent. She gave a satisfied smile. The damage had been done, and there was a hole in the defensive screen of the frigate. With the shields of the frigate at only a little over half strength, her two Nova Missiles could not only take down the remaining shields of the frigate, but also inflict severe damage to the ship, itself. However, before she could focus on taking down the frigate's shields, and possibly the frigate itself, several more blips appeared on her sensors. Looking out the back of her cockpit, she could see small shiny dots off in the distance. She grimaced as she saw the Space Pirate starfighters and ATCs approaching her position fast.

Wasting no time, Samus turned to face down the approaching starfighters and deal with their threat before they managed to get within firing range, knowing that she could not afford to waste any time in dealing with them since even without its primary energy cannons, the frigate was still a threat to the _Adventure_. As the fighters and ATCs approached, Samus tallied twelve starfighters and two ATCs. She was thankful, now more than ever, that she still had her four cluster seeker missiles. Immediately releasing the safeties for the missiles, she targeted all fourteen enemy spacecraft. In less than a second, her ship's targeting computer had managed to get a lock on all fourteen enemy fighters and ATCs. Once her computer had gotten a lock on the enemy craft, she fired her four cluster seeker missiles. Her starship's weapons bay opened and immediately unleashed the four missiles. The missiles rocketed towards the enemy squadron, zeroing in on certain points of the squadron. Once they were within a few kilometers, the missiles split apart and each warhead searched for its own specific target. Only one warhead sought each of the starfighters, leaving the other warheads to deal with the Space Pirate ATCs. The Space Pirate fighters and transports began evasive maneuvers the moment they realized that they had been locked onto by Samus, but there was little that they could do to evade her missiles. Unlike some bounty hunters who may have skimped on the missile armaments for their ships, viewing missiles as only being useful against capital ships, Samus prepared for all potential contingencies on a mission, especially if she felt that she may be dealing with Space Pirates. As it was, the countermeasures employed by the Space Pirate craft were woefully insufficient to confuse the targeting systems of the warheads. The guided warheads zeroed in on the fighters and the ATCs and detonated upon impact. Samus looked off into the distance and saw fourteen bright flashes of light. With each flash of light, a red blip disappeared from her sensor screen. After a few seconds, only one red blip remained in the vicinity, the Space Pirate Frigate _Siriacus_.

Turning her ship back towards the _Siriacus_ Samus glanced at her tactical screen. The ship's shields had recovered to sixty percent their full strength; still no match for two Nova Missiles. Samus then switched to her Nova Missiles and flicked a few switches to release the safety levers of the missiles. She then proceeded to arm the warheads and locked onto the port aft quadrant of the frigate, since the frigate was missing several of its point defense guns in that area. Once the tone began solid, Samus pushed the firing button on her control stick twice. Two missiles erupted from her ship's weapons bay and streaked towards the frigate. The missiles were noticeably larger than the cluster missiles that she had used against the Space Pirate starfighters. The frigate sprayed energy fire at both the missiles and the modified starfighter that had launched them. As soon as she had fired the missiles, Samus peeled her ship away from the frigate and weaved her way through the massive gauntlet of energy fire, managing to avoid most of the fire. The only energy blast that managed to score a hit on her ship scored a glancing hit at best and only brought her shields down to seventy percent. Her ship lurched with the hit, though, but suffered no further damage. She felt that it was fortunate that the blast had managed to clip her ship, rather than score a hit on one of her Nova Missiles.

Meanwhile, the Novas continued to streak towards the frigate. In merely a few seconds, the missiles managed to get through the screen of energy fire and scored two direct hits on the Space Pirate frigate. The ship's shields flared a bright yellow with the first hit. The glow spread out from the epicenter of the explosion and as the missile detonated. A tremendously bright flash was seen as space was illuminated for a fraction of a second. After that second, the flash disappeared. The first missile took the shields of the frigate down to ten percent. The frigate tried to divert power from the forward shield to the rear shields, but were unable to do so before the second missile struck and took down the remaining shields of the frigate in addition to inflicting severe hull damage to the ship. The missile blew a massive hole into the side of the frigate. Equipment and crewmembers were blown into space through the massive hole. The ship began to list to its left as P'Vash undoubtedly did not want Samus to fire into the damaged hole.

Unfortunately for P'Vash, Samus was already approaching and matching his ship's maneuvers. She lined her ship up with the large hole and armed her two remaining missiles, which were anti-starship missiles that were generally designed for use against transports and freighters, though given the damage that the _Siriacus_ had sustained, if she managed to hit close enough a critical system, the ship could suffer catastrophic damage and even be destroyed. Once she had targeted the hole in the frigate, she fired her two remaining missiles towards the hole. The few remaining point defense cannons tried in vain to shoot down the missiles, ignoring Samus's gunship to focus on the missiles. The missiles easily managed to make their way past the energy fire and flew straight into the hole. In less than a second, two more explosions rocked the frigate. Chunks of metal were blown from the center of the ship, forcing the frigate downward. The engines went dark and the lights on the ship suddenly winked out of existence. The frigate then began to move down towards the planet, being pulled down into the gravity well of the planet. Without its sublight engines or thrusters being operational, there was nothing that the frigate could do. If anyone was left alive onboard the ship, which was debatable given the damage that the ship had suffered, they would not likely survive the crash. As the frigate entered the atmosphere of Shanera, the hull of the frigate began to ignite and was set ablaze. As it continued to fall, the fire spread to the rest of the ship and eventually, the _Siriacus_ was reduced to a fireball. After a while, the frigate split into two pieces and they both crashed into the planet, with the front half of the ship crumpling into an unrecognizable mass of metal and exploding, while the rear part of the ship fell and crashed into an ocean.

Meanwhile, just as the ship began its death dive, the _Adventure in the Stars_ had managed to breach the atmosphere. Once it had, Samus opened a channel to the ship and told the captain, "The frigate has been dealt with. You're clear to go, _Adventure_."

"Thanks for the help, Samus," the captain of the star liner responded. "We owe you, big time."

Samus smiled. "Don't worry about it. Crippling the Space Pirates again is more than payment enough."

The captain and the bridge crew of the star liner chuckled at Samus's statement. The channel was then closed and Samus then brought her ship alongside the star liner. Off in the distance, her sensors detected a second starship, a heavy freighter that she was almost certain was of Space Pirate in origin. She would have been tempted to go after the ship if she had not expended all of her missiles on this mission. However, as it was, she had no missiles left, and while her energy cannons were powerful, they would not take down the freighter's shields before it managed to escape. However, since her sensors did not detect any weapons onboard the freighter, she decided that it was best to let the ship go and focus on escorting the _Adventure in the Stars_ to its destination. With that, Samus waited for the _Adventure_ to get a heading. The _Adventure_ soon transmitted its course heading to Samus's ship. Once she received the coordinates of the ship's intended jump, she waited for the large cruise ship to jump to warp. The engines of the large star liner glowed for a second before it proceeded to jump to warp. One second after the _Adventure_ had jumped, Samus's gunship went to warp to escort it to its desired destination.

Meanwhile, during the battle between Samus's starship and the _Siriacus_, the heavy freighter that held Kraid, Ridley, and Mother Brain achieved orbit over Shanera. Ridley stood on the bridge with the others as they watched the final moments of the battle. Ridley scowled as he saw that Samus was handing the frigate and its fighter and ATC support their rears as one by one, the fighters and ATCs were annihilated. He then saw Samus head towards the frigate and noticed that she was beginning an attack run on the ship. At first, he did not know why she would risk making an attack run on the ship. He then had a sinking feeling as he saw two missiles launch from the Hunter's gunship and the gunship begin to peel away from the frigate as the frigate sprayed energy fire at both the gunship and the approaching missiles. He then told the sensor officer, "Ensign, scan those missiles. I want to know if those are matter-antimatter Nova Missiles."

The sensor officer quickly glanced down at his console and after a second, he said, "Confirmed, Lord Ridley. The missiles are using a matter-antimatter warhead. They seem to be the heavy variant, for they have minimal guidance systems, likely to store more matter and antimatter."

Ridley could only look on in horror as the two missiles struck the frigate in the side and managed to blow a massive hole into the ship. His glued his eyes to the screen as Samus unleashed two more missiles, not as large as the Novas, but undoubtedly deadly nonetheless. He watched as the two missiles flew into the massive hole that had been formed by the initial strike and exploded, gouging two more massive holes into the ship. He saw the ship's lights wink out and the engines go dark. Looking over at the sensor officer, he said, "What is the status of the _Siriacus_?"

The sensor officer looked at his console and his face went white. He looked over at Ridley and said in a detached voice, "Shields are down, main power is offline, auxiliary power is offline, and its weapons are gone. Engines are also non-functional and thrusters are out. My lord, the ship is being pulled into Shanera's gravity well. I am detecting no escape pods, either. There is nothing we can do for it."

Ridley seethed. "Then we will have to accept the loss of the _Siriacus_." It was the most difficult thing for Ridley to have to say. Samus had won, again. Even though he had not faced her directly in battle, she had still beaten him. Now, all that was left was this cargo vessel and maybe a few transports that were currently in pieces in the cargo containers. Now, there were only a couple hundred Space Pirates left, not counting the leaders. While they could clone more Zebesians, and possibly the Urtragians as well, it would be difficult to recover from this loss since they had lost their last warship. Ridley then turned to the helmsman and said with a note of anger in his voice, "Set a course for Earth and get us out of here. There's nothing more we can do here."

"Aye, sir," the helmsman responded.

As the ship jumped to warp, Ridley said in a low, ominous voice, "You better not refuse us, Cyrus. It would not be good for you if I divulged your willingness to work with us."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

Samus's gunship exited warp close to the planet Icthyocentaurus, a gas giant in the Alpha Centauri system. The planet was orbited by two moons, Bythos and Aphros, both of which were water worlds covered in oceans, with only small islands that sporadically dotted the surface, that were situated on either side of the gas giant. Samus proceeded to take her ship to the farther of the moons, Aphros. There, a Galactic Federation in Exile fleet orbited the moon, along with a large starbase that housed necessary fuel, supplies, and weapons for the fleet. The fleet numbered three hundred ships in total. Samus soon checked her sensors for the location of the flagship of the fleet, the _G.F.S. Olympus_. Upon finding it docked with the station, the _Athens_, she proceeded to take her ship over towards the _Olympus_. As her ship began to approach both the _Athens_ and the _Olympus_, a voice came in over her comm, saying, "Incoming starship, we have you on our sensors. Please identify yourself and state your destination." The voice sounded like it belonged to someone young, likely either just out of the academy or an ensign that should have still been in the academy but had been promoted due to the personnel shortage.

"I am Samus Aran, and my destination is the _G.F.S. Olympus_," the bounty hunter responded succinctly, but in a casual voice. She had gone through this several times before in this war.

After a moment, the voice answered, "We have no report of you being ordered to the _Olympus_. Please transmit your authorization code and identification information at once."

She did so without complaint and waited for the voice to respond. She knew that she would have to go through this process once more. While she was quite a celebrity among some in the military, she was a legend or a ghost story to others, a grim reaper that came to punish the Space Pirates as well as the souls of others who were evil. As she waited, there was moment of silence and she noticed two Katana-class starfighters appear on sensors, approaching her position fast. The Katanas were new starfighters that had been developed and built by the Earth military and were almost exclusively used by the Galactic Federation in Exile. They strongly resembled old Earth jet fighters of the planet's late twentieth to early twenty-first century. She had not expected to see Katanas coming towards her, but she did not take any actions that could be seen as hostile. In addition, her early warning systems were not sounding, meaning that the Katanas were not locking onto her ship. Eventually, the two starfighters entered visual range and she saw that they were coming to either side of her. It seemed as if this was another security precaution. Her sensors indicated that her ship was being scanned, though the non-cloak based stealth systems onboard her ship, whose default settings were always on, would likely not give them a clear reading. She suspected that the fighters had managed to find her by locking onto the magnetic signature of her fighter's hull. After the fighters passed her ship, the voice came in over her radio once more, saying, "Authorization code and identification information confirmed and accepted. You may dock with the _G.F.S. Olympus_."

Samus smiled. "Thank you," she said in response, and then she closed the channel. She proceeded to fly towards the _G.F.S. Olympus_, which was docked with a massive starbase that dwarfed the ship, which was easily a kilometer in length. She noticed that several other Olympus-class battleships were also docked with the starbase. As she was flying, she could see numerous fighters flitting about between the capital ships. There were also a large number of transports and assault gunships as well. As she got closer to the _Olympus_, she detected several dozen new contacts. Looking out the cockpit, she saw many subspace windows close as dozens of ships appeared and began to make their way towards the fleet. Admiral Dane was assembling a fleet. She began to think that this was they were going to take back Earth before the orbital defense ring network was completed and the ships that were currently defending it would be free to launch further assaults on Aliehs III, Corella 5, and even other worlds like Aether and Tallon IV.

After a minute or so, Samus made her approach to the hangar bay of the massive battleship. Several Stiletto-class starfighters flew a holding pattern that took them close to the _Olympus_. As Samus's ship flew past, they tipped their engine pods towards the bounty hunter's gunship. When she approached the hangar bay, she slowed her ship, being very careful to control her landing. After ten seconds, her ship crossed the magnetic field that kept the hangar bay pressurized. When she entered the hangar bay, she deployed her ship's landing gear. Three struts with round tires on the end extended from the bottom of her ship and as soon as she found a clear area where she could land, she took her ship over and descended to the floor of the hangar bay. The ship then touched down, causing the cockpit to shudder as the ship made contact with the ground. After her ship had landed she powered down the ship and turned her chair towards the rear of the ship. She moved over to the release lever for the small lower hatch. She pulled the release and a small, round hatch opened. She then jumped down from her ship and as soon as she had left, she closed the hatch.

She proceeded across the walkway and looked over at a couple Galactic Federation Marines, soldiers that wore dark gray power armor with blue highlights and was equipped with energy shields, though said shields were not as powerful as those of any of Samus's suits. Their chest plate resembled the Federation Symbol, and they wore helmets with blue visors shaped like a "T", and also resembled the Federation Symbol. Each Marine was equipped with an advanced energy assault rifle that covered almost half of their right arms. Each of the marines gave her a salute, or a nod, which she returned. She soon passed by a training area where a trio of Marines were practicing on the several cylindrical training drones. They would fire scarlet energy bolts from their energy rifles at the small cylindrical drones, which would rise with each hit and spin from the impacts. The goal was to keep the drones in the air for as long as possible. Screens below the Marines would register the number of times each training drone was hit by said Marine. So far, the record appeared to be twenty hits. She walked past the training area and up a ramp that led to one of the hangar bay's exits. She approached the door and it opened for her, granting her passage.

The next room she entered was merely an observation room that had several windows that allowed one to gaze out at the hangar bay that she had just come from. Several human Fleet Troopers, Federation fleet personnel that were not trained for heavy personal combat scenarios, stood by a group of consoles that showed the readouts and statuses of the docked ships in the hangar. Looking around, she saw two access ramps that led to the second floor of the room. She proceeded to make her way up the ramps to the second floor. Walking past a few terminals and screens that detailed the schematics of several newer Federation ships, such as the Katana-class starfighter and the Archangel-class "battleship", a ship that was even faster and more powerful than the Olympus-class, yet was significantly smaller than the ships of the Olympus class and any other battleships, for that matter. In fact, it was almost as small as some classes of heavy cruiser. Making her way past a new set of consoles and some more fleet personnel, she went to the door at the end of the room and entered.

On the other side was a relatively thin corridor that was an enclosed access walkway with a large glass window to the right. Glancing out the window, Samus saw an Aries-class transport docked inside another hangar bay. She continued past the window and the next station where several fleet troopers were monitoring the status of the transport, as well as several frigates that were currently docked with the ship. She soon went over to the door, which was protected by a powerful blast shield that was impervious to all but the strongest of infantry weapons. Remembering the access code from her previous times onboard the _Olympus_, she input the code 13576 on the terminal, and the blast shield disappeared, granting Samus access to the next room. She then went through the door and proceeded on her way.

The next room was a scanning room with several consoles and a containment area where subjects would undergo a security scan before being allowed to go to the Command Bridge of the ship. As she entered, a Galactic Federation Marine approached and directed, "Please enter the containment area to begin security scan.

Samus did as she was directed and went over to the containment area. Outside the containment room, there was a lever that would open the door to the small room. She pulled it out, twisted, and pushed it back in, and then proceeded to enter the containment area. After doing so, the door closed behind her. Once she was inside, the Fleet Trooper at the controls said, "Initiating DNA verification." A grid of orange and blue energy formed along the walls of the small room. She felt nothing as the lights remained active for one second, then shut off. The scan was over. The trooper then said, "DNA verified. Registration number 13576. Identified as Bounty Hunter, Samus Aran. Preparing biohazard scan." A small, camera-like device was lowered from the ceiling and faced the bounty hunter directly. The trooper then directed, "Please approach the scan terminal."

Samus did as was requested and approached the terminal. She then looked into the terminal as it began the scan. A blank screen was soon filled with blue bars, four in all, indicating that she was being scanned for any signs of contamination. After a few seconds, green letters flashed on the terminal, _Status: Clear_. She then backed away from the terminal as it was retracted and the officer said, "Scan complete, no hazardous material detected. Samus, you are cleared for the Command Bridge."

She then went over and pulled down a second lever that opened the exit to the containment area. Once the door lifted, she proceeded to exit the area and made her way to the next door. As she approached, the door opened and she walked on through.

The next area was merely a corridor with a window to outer space to the right. Samus glanced out the window and saw another set of subspace windows opening and another fleet of ships emerging, led by an Archangel-class warship. She figured that there had to be at least a hundred capital ships in the fleet. The Federation in Exile was obviously assembling its forces for a massive attack, likely on planet Earth. She thought back to Earth and what Cyrus's goals were. While he may have said that his goals might only result in the destruction of one world, she new better. Cyrus had already been stopped once before by a child even before Mewtwo had stopped him again, with a bit of assistance from her. She knew that Cyrus was merely using the Galactic Federation for his own ends, which, if he accomplished his dreams, could result in the destruction of the entire known universe. She then continued down the corridor, passing a couple Galactic Federation Marines, before coming to the door that lead to Command Lift A.

After making her way into the Command Lift, she went over to a small keypad which prompted her to place her hand on the pad so it could take a scan. Once she did so, the lift lit up and a hologram appeared in the center of the lift. She walked over to the hologram and stepped into the center of the lift. As she did so, the lift began to move upwards and a motor could be heard as the lift carried the bounty hunter closer to her goal.

It took the lift about ten seconds for it to reach its destination. When it did so, Samus looked around and saw a door that would lead her out of the lift. She went on through and entered a small corridor with a window to another corridor. Through the window, she saw several Fleet Troopers carrying out their duties. Ignoring the crewmembers of the ship, she turned to her right and saw another door that lead out of this corridor. This door took her to another thin corridor which led directly to the bridge of the ship.

She stepped out onto the bridge and saw two stations, one for the helm, the other for astronavigation. Officers sat at the consoles and looked out the large window into space when they were not focused on their duties. Samus could hear some of the chatter coming form several officers. "Man, I hear that things are getting pretty bad aren't they," the helmsman said, his voice showing his concern.

"I hear ya," the navigation officer responded. "Ever since Earth was taken, Cyrus and the Galactic Federation have practically declared victory. Worlds are jumping ship back to the Federation like crazy. Only Aliehs Three, Corella Five, Aether, Tallon Four, and, ironically enough, Earth, have really still held out. Everyone else is now either firmly in with the so-called Federation or is neutral."

"Then what are Admiral Dane and Commander General Malkovich thinking bringing such a large fleet here? I mean, if the Federation attacks us now, it's all over."

"They may be bringing in some reinforcements for an attack of his own," the navigation officer responded. "They were pretty eager to take control of Icthyocentaurus and its two moons, as well as the starbases over both moons. I hear that there are still holdouts on Earth. If they can manage to hold off the invasion forces, then there's a chance that if Cyrus is either captured or assassinated, that we can end this conflict."

"Yeah," the helmsman responded. "Let's hope that we can manage to do something. With the Star Fox Team, the N'Kren, Ylla, and almost a third of the previous Galactic Federation fleet, before the civil war, firmly allied with Cyrus, plus the numerous planetary defense fleets that he has since nationalized into his Galactic Federation military, he's in a pretty good position, especially with the fleet losses we suffered defending Earth in the first battle."

"The losses were still pretty bad for Cyrus, too, though," the navigation officer countered. "For every Earth and Federation in Exile capital ship that was lost, he lost three, and that's not counting the corvettes and non-warp capable ships he used as well."

"That's of little comfort when you're outnumbered at least ten-to-one by the enemy," the helmsman stated flatly.

The navigation officer could not disagree with that assessment. Things were, indeed, getting bad. Still, where there was life, there was still hope. Samus made her way past the stations, along with the tactical and gunnery stations and went up a walkway to the upper level of the bridge. There, she came across three doors, with a Federation Marine guarding one of them. That door led to Admiral Dane's ready room, while the larger door in the middle led to Aurora Unit 242's Chamber. The third door to the right from where Samus had entered the upper control deck, but to the left as one looked out over the bridge led to a recharge station. Since she did not have time to recharge her suit as she escorted the _Adventure in the Stars_ off of Shanera and to its destination, she thought that this would be a good place to recharge and rearm herself. She went over to that far door and proceeded on through.

Upon entering the door, she found herself in a small corridor. Several crates lined the corridor and even blocked access to a door to her right. Samus charged her Power Beam and blasted away at a large, metallic crate, shattering it with a single blast. She then proceeded to blast a smaller crate, unblocking the door. She looked farther down the corridor and saw another door that was protected by a black blast shield, so she decided to go into the room on her right. She entered the room and found the Recharge Station. She stepped into the center of the station and waited as field of refreshing energy rose from the ground to the ceiling. Samus felt a wave of refreshing feeling come over her as she saw her shield level fill and her missiles get replenished. After a few seconds, it was over and she was fully recharged. With that, Samus retraced her steps back out onto the bridge and proceeded to head on over to Admiral Dane's ready room.

As she approached the Marine guarding the ready room, she stopped and he took out a small paperback book-sized device and proceeded to scan her once more. After a few moments, he said, "You're good to go. Admiral Dane and the others are waiting inside."

Samus wondered for a second about what "others" the Marine was referring to, but she did not press him. She walked past the marine and through the door. She proceeded to enter a long, unoccupied corridor that had a single door at the end of it. The bounty hunter walked down the corridor and proceeded to enter the door at the other end.

Upon entering the ready room, she found a familiar large circular pad in the center of the room, along with several workstations and consoles surrounding the pad. She looked around and saw both Admiral Dane and the holographic form of Commander General Adam Malkovich conversing with one another. She looked at another part of the pad and saw the Luminoth sentinel, U-Mos standing close to two Chozo, one a corporeal Chozo named Old Bird, and a non-corporeal Ascended Chozo named Gray Voice.

When the group noticed that Samus had entered the ready room, her old caretakers went over to see her. Upon arriving, both Old Bird and Gray Voice embraced Samus, who returned their hugs. "It's good to see you looking well my child," Old Bird said, looking into the visor of Samus's helmet.

"I'm glad you made it back alright," Gray Voice echoed.

"It's great to see you both, as well," Samus said in return.

Admiral Dane, Adam Malkovich, and U-Mos looked on as Samus got reacquainted. Once they were ready, they all came around the circular pad. Once they arrived, Admiral Dane stepped forward and told Samus, "I'm glad you could make it on such short notice. I must apologize for the inconvenience of having to put you through all of those checks and scans again, but there have been recent reports of Federation operatives trying to infiltrate Federation in Exile bases and ships. While no one had yet tried to impersonate you, we did not want to risk putting it past Cyrus's soldiers."

Samus indicated that it was no inconvenience with a nod. With that, Admiral Dane began the proceeding, saying, "And your report on the attack on the convoy?"

"When I arrived on the scene, much of the convoy I received the distress signal from had already been destroyed, along with their escort, a squadron of Federation Stiletto-class starfighters and the ships of the bounty hunters Ixis and Fasome." She looked down at the ground at the mention of the two bounty hunters. After a moment of silence, she looked back at the admiral and continued, "Not long after my arrival, the star liner _Adventure in the Stars_ jumped to warp. A few seconds later, the transport, _U.S.S. Exeter_, exploded, almost certainly due to Space Pirate attack. I then found a Space Pirate force attacking the freighter, _Crab Cake 1_. I went to help and managed to board the freighter and kill all of the Space Pirate attackers onboard. All they were able to make off with was the Light Beam and a few crates of weapons, mainly assault energy rifles and missile launchers.

"Once the _Crab Cake 1_ was secured, I proceeded to track the _Adventure in the Stars_ to the planet Shanera, where the Space Pirates had built another base. I went down to the base and killed the Pirates that were taking the passengers prisoner. A few had already been taken to the base, so after I secured the _Adventure_, I went into the base and fought my way down to the prisoners. In the process, acquired the Light Beam and Light Missile, and killed the cloned Space Pirate generals Crocomire, Draygon, and Phantoon. Ridley, Kraid, another clone of Mother Brain, and the surviving members of Space Pirate High Command managed to escape, however. With them gone, I lead the prisoners back to the surface, and to the _Adventure_. Once that was accomplished, I used my ship to fight the Space Pirate Frigate _Siriacus_ in orbit of the planet. The frigate managed to scuttle the Space Pirate base, and any of the other captured weapons before I managed to disable it. Since it was too close to the planet, the frigate was pulled down into the atmosphere and, due to the damage, the ship burned up upon entering the atmosphere. With the frigate destroyed, I escorted the _Adventure in the Stars_ to Corella Five without any further incident."

"Good work, Samus," the admiral commended. "I must say that I am impressed with your performance. Destroying a Space Pirate frigate is no easy task for a single starfighter/gunship, even _with_ a pair of Nova Missiles. We will, of course, transfer your fee, plus the bonus for taking down the Space Pirate frigate, to your account and resupply your starship, Nova Missiles and all, at no charge." The admiral then paused for a moment before saying, "Well, time to get to the matter at hand." He then looked over at Adam and got to the subject of the briefing at hand. "Samus, you are aware of the current state of the Galactic Federation Civil War, are you not?"

Samus nodded. Adam then went over to a console on the side of the circular holographic pad.

"Good. Then you know that with Cyrus and the Galactic Federation forces already having achieved orbital superiority over Earth, that it is only a matter of time before Cyrus finds whatever he is looking for on Earth," Admiral Dane continued. "If what you say is true, and we have several sources that indicate that it is, then he's undoubtedly searching for an alternative means of creating his own universe. Our spies inside the Galactic Federation, as well as some defectors, have even indicated that he already has the tools necessary to accomplish his goals. He merely needs to find the correct location on Earth where he can use them in order to bring his plans to fruition. We must stop him at all costs. That is where you come in, Samus." He then motioned for Adam to continue.

The hologram of Adam that housed his mind and soul inside a small projector that floated inside the hologram went over to the circular pad's console and input a series of commands into the computer. Immediately, a hologram of Earth appeared. Samus could easily identify the continents on the hologram. The country of Japan, particularly the Johto and Sinnoh Regions of said country, were highlighted blue, with Johto and Sinnoh being highlighted red, as well as a region just southwest of New England in the northeastern part of the United States of America. "We believe that these are the primary locations that Cyrus wants to take control of. He's already taken control of New York City and Washington D.C., but he has yet to control Unova since a large contingent of Earth's armed forces are stationing their troops in these regions. Even so, the only locations that Cyrus has complete control are the Radio Tower in New York City, and the city of Washington D.C. Everyplace else is still being hotly contested. And he has no real foothold in Sinnoh or Johto yet, but reports indicate that Federation forces are making a big push into both of those regions of Japan. It will only be a matter of time before he manages to find what he is looking for."

"So you wish for me to take him out," Samus stated flatly. She did not like assassination missions, and she had rarely gone on them, with only her first return to Zebes potentially counting as an assassination mission."

"If necessary," Adam responded. "But first, we have another issue that needs to be dealt with."

The hologram of Earth then shrunk in size and a new image appeared. Suddenly, the planet was surrounded by eight crisscrossing rings. Samus could barely hide her surprise as she said, "They already finished the Orbital Defense Rings? I thought that it would take at least another three years to complete them."

Both Adam and Admiral Dane nodded solemnly. "So did we. The N'Kren and Ylla used their technology to cut the construction time to a small fraction of what it would have originally been. The Orbital Defense Rings were brought online three days ago and have already started bombarding various sectors and regions of the planet that are still supporting the Federation in Exile." The image soon showed scarlet, orange, and blue beams from the defensive lasers, particle beam and plasma projectors being hurled down at the planet's surface. Several small, relatively speaking, explosions could be seen dotting across the surface of the planet, though they were mainly focused in on Europe, Continental Asia, and the western part of the America, and were quite small in comparison to what a capital ship or defense station could do to a planet if it opened fire with its weapons at full power, yielding at most a couple megatons apiece. The size of the seemingly small fireballs came nowhere close to the size of the fireball produced by the Space Pirate Frigate _Siriacus_ in its small volley of energy fire on the Space Pirate base and on the _Adventure_. It was obvious that these were tactical, rather than strategic or Order Thirty-four, the order to burn the surface of a planet and strip it of its crust, a process that took around twenty ships about one hour to perform, strikes. The people of Earth were lucky. Cyrus must not have wanted to inflict too much damage to the planet and risk damaging whatever he was looking for.

Samus then interrupted, asking, "Excuse me, but do we actually know for certain what Cyrus is looking for?"

"Not exactly, no," Adam responded. "We do know, however, that the Sinnoh and Johto Pokémon League Champions, Cynthia and Lance, are guarding an area in the Ruins of Alph, in Johto, and are also guarding an ancient temple north of Johto. Some sources indicate that this area is known as the Sinjoh Ruins. There are also rumors the Sinjoh Ruins contains a secret pertaining to the so-called Creation Trio and Arceus, itself. And if we've learned about it, then you can bet that Cyrus knows about it as well. And he'll be pushing most, if not all, of his forces towards that location, sending a relatively small expedition to Mount Coronet to secure it just in case his mission there doesn't pan out."

"Unfortunately, getting to Earth is even harder than it may look at the moment," Admiral Dane interjected. The image of the hologram soon showed a shield surrounding the entire planet. "The Orbital Defense Rings aren't just using their defense cannons to pick off Earth troop emplacements on the ground. They're also producing a planetary shield that is practically impossible to break through via conventional means. This shield is also likely a product of N'Kren and/or Ylla technology."

"The Federation has planetary shield technology," Samus interjected. "In fact, Earth has its own set of planetary shields. Using the rings to raise a planetary shield seems redundant."

"I would agree," Admiral Dane responded, "except for the fact that these shields are semipermeable. Cyrus had his fleet hiding behind the shields, allowing them to open fire on any invading enemy fleet with impunity." Turning to Samus, he then said, "So Samus, your mission will be to get onboard those rings and destroy them. You must destroy all eight rings. Even should seven of the eight rings be destroyed, the eighth would still be able to produce a planetary shield that would be highly difficult, if not impossible, for our fleet to penetrate without suffering catastrophic losses. The others are mainly there for redundancy.

"We have spies onboard the rings and we have managed to get a general schematic of the orbital rings, as well as the general locations of their control centers, power cores, as well as the accessways to the other rings. In addition, there are map stations onboard each ring that will give you a more detailed layout of their respective rings."

The hologram soon shifted so that it focused in on the rings. More of the superstructure of the rings became visible, as did the fact that the rings bristled with all sorts of lasers, particle beam and plasma projectors. There were several highlighted areas on the hologram as well. Admiral Dane then continued, "We believe that these are the general locations of the main reactors. Your goal, however, is not to destroy any of the reactors; for even if you take down one ring, chances are that it will be the only ring taken out. Besides, there are too many for you to be able to take out in any reasonable timeframe anyway. Several green squares on the hologram soon appeared. "These are the what we believe to be the locations of the main control centers of the rings. Your mission is to rig each ring so that they can all be slaved together. Your Scan Visor should allow you to hack into the main computer and allow you to initiate the autodestruct sequence for all of the orbital rings at once, assuming you've dealt with any countermeasures that might be in place onboard each ring. That's why we want you to rig the computers and link them together. It will give the enemy less time to react and try to shut down the autodestruct sequence once you activate it. One bit of minutiae that you might want to note is that in the event of the rings' autodestruct sequence, before the power cores explode, the rings would break apart and rocket away from Earth. That way, the explosions would hurl more of the debris away from the Earth, and give Earth's defenses a better chance of shooting down any of the remaining debris should the planetary shields be offline so you won't have to worry about Earth taking damage from the destruction of the orbital rings. Should that not be possible, though, you can still destroy the Orbital Defense Ring network the old fashioned way by simply boarding each ring and destroying it on its own by hacking its main computer and activating its autodestruct sequence."

After Admiral Dane was finished, Adam began the next part of the briefing, "We managed to obtain a small transport shuttle from a defector from the Galactic Federation. Using a special Federation code, you will use that to board one of the Orbital Defense Rings. This will not be easy and you will likely be scanned numerous times before being allowed onboard the ring. Don't worry; the shuttle has special jammers several automated transponders that can send back false sensor readings. It will look like the shuttle is merely carrying parts and a maintenance crew to the rings just to make sure that everything is in working order. We've seen several such shuttles going to and from the rings, so getting onboard won't be too difficult. The issue will be once you get onboard. Our spies indicate that there is a strong military presence onboard the Orbital Defense Rings, and that they are also doing some scientific research onboard the rings as well. Some of their projects might be of use, too, so don't hesitate to investigate any of them if you get the chance.

"Also, our spies indicate that the military presence consists of not only Galactic Federation Marines and Army Troopers, but also of Techno Soldiers: Serfs, Squires, Knights, and possibly even Lords." As he said this, the images of Techno Soldiers appeared on the holographic display. First was the Techno Serf, a "low class" Techno Soldier that sported a small dagger and short sword that looked to be able to shoot energy bolts, as well as two small shoulder cannons. The armor that these soldiers wore was not all that bulky, and Samus suspected that their weapons were not all that powerful compared to the higher ranks. The Techno Squire looked like a Techno Serf except for the fact that the Squire had heavier looking weapons, particularly, heavier and more powerful shoulder cannons. The Knight that appeared looked to be a more heavily armored version of the Squire. The Knight bore a longer blade and also was said to be equipped with either a lance or an energy staff, in addition the broadsword that it wielded looked to be able to create a field of energy around it to increase its cutting power. The Knights also had powerful energy projectors on their chests similar to the ones that her parents had. When the image of the Techno Lord appeared, Samus did not need to see any of its weapons or its readouts. She knew firsthand just how deadly such warriors were, having faced off against her parents, who were, themselves, Techno Lords. She was not surprised to find that Techno Lords also came equipped with energy shields much like those sported by her own Power Suit. After a second, Adam continued, "In addition, you might also encounter enemies wearing power armor suits similar to the Techno Soldiers' suits, but weaker." As he mentioned this new enemy, the hologram of a large, bulky mechanoid-looking foe that sported a massive handheld cannon appeared. The outline of a human occupant also appeared overlaid with the armor, appearing as if he were wearing it. The armor of this foe looked tough, but Samus suspected that the armored suit was not nearly as tough as the Techno Soldiers. This enemy looked as if it were designed for ground combat and did not have any thrusters or engines like the more versatile Techno Soldiers. "Not only that, but there have been reports of bounty hunters arriving at Earth. Be on the lookout for them, especially for Trace and Kanden. There have also been some unconfirmed reports of Noxus and Spire coming in as well. Be on your guard.

"One more thing," Adam said, nearing Samus. "Once you destroy the Orbital Defense Rings, your mission won't be complete. You'll then have to do your best to get to Washington D.C. and take over the Capitol Building. Cyrus's forces can control the Planetary Defense Grid from that location. Take the building and make contact with any allies you come across. We'll do our best to get troops down on the planet as quickly as possible to free you to hunt for Cyrus. This mission is an S-rank mission; the highest rank a mission can receive. And to tell you the truth, this is beyond any S-rank mission I've ever given to a single person, or seen a person undertake. As always, we'll pay you your standard fee right off the bat, plus the S-rank bonus that goes along with such missions upon the completion of your mission. We're counting on you, Samus."

Samus then saluted, raising her arm cannon to her helmet, proclaiming, "I won't let you down sirs," echoing her first words spoken to Adam at her orientation upon being recruited into he Galactic Federation Police Force and Military when he first examined her.

Adam gave a smile. "I know," he said. "This is why we're giving this mission to you, rather than to a massive strike force." He then paused before saying, "One more thing, Samus. To complete the disguise of you being a technician sent to oversee routine maintenance on the Orbital Rings, you will be given a standard Federation technician's uniform. It is over in your temporary quarters on Deck Five."

"I understand," she responded.

Admiral Dane and Adam Malkovich then bellowed, "Dismissed," in unison. Samus saluted the two commanding officers one last time, as well as giving a smile to Old Bird and Gray Voice, before turning and heading back out the door.

As she left, the others hovered around the circular platform as the image of Earth reappeared. Not only was Earth now surrounded by the eight Orbital Defense Rings in the image, but it was also surrounded by three hundred Heavy Defense Platforms, thousands of laser, plasma, and missile turrets, and also guarded by one thousand capital starships, and countless starfighters, bombers, and assault transports, along with squadrons of Techno Knights. Admiral Dane and Adam Malkovich looked over at Old Bird, Gray Voice, and U-Mos. The trio then walked over to them and Adam asked, "You all know what N'Kren and Ylla technology is capable of. What chance does Samus have of actually managing to successfully complete this mission and coming back alive?"

The Chozo and U-Mos glanced at each other before looking back at the two humans and responding, "Normally, I would say that her chances were next to none. However, this is Samus that we're talking about here. She is highly resilient, both physically and mentally. If it were anyone else, I would say that their chances would be almost zero, even with all of the technology of the newest and best Chozo Power Suit, with all upgrades, at his or her disposal. However, since this is Samus, and she has gone on what appeared to be suicide missions before and come out alive, all I can say is that we should not count her out."

The humans gave relieved smiles. "Okay, now to the next question, even if Samus is successful in destroying the Orbital Defense Rings and taking control of the Capitol Building, what are the chances that Cyrus finds what he is looking for before we can stop him?"

"That I don't know," Gray Voice responded. "The only information on Earth that I have to go on is what is in your databanks, but if the fact that the universe, and Earth, are still around is any indication, then he might be having more difficulty in his search than we initially believed he would. It has been three weeks since he had achieved orbital superiority over the planet and taken control of its capital and the Radio Tower. I don't think that Earth moving most of their remaining troops to Johto, Sinnoh, and Unova is the only thing stopping Cyrus from accomplishing his goals. Given the massive force at his disposal, I would have expected him to have remade the universe if he knew exactly what he was searching for."

"That's odd, since our own spies indicate that he has all of the tools necessary to accomplish his goals," Adam countered.

"Ah, but it does not matter to him. He may have the tools but if he does not know what he needs to build, then what good does having all the tools and parts necessary do him?" Old Bird asked. "It would be like a child wanting to build a starship in order to travel the stars. The child may have the parts and tools necessary to build said starship, but without the knowledge necessary to do so, or friends that know how to build said starship, what good are those parts and tools?"

"I see," Adam responded, nodding.

Admiral Dane then looked away from the image detailing the known defenses of Earth and said in a somber and almost distant tone, "Even if Samus Aran is successful in destroying the Orbital Rings and disabling the defense grid, this battle is going to be very difficult, and very bloody."

"I know," Adam said, echoing the admiral's sentiments. "Our scouts are already indicating that the Federation is amassing a massive fleet at Earth. Five hundred more ships have been seen to have appeared over the planet, with reports of three times that many due to arrive in an hour."

One of the human crewmembers at a station near the hologram soon called out towards Admiral Dane, saying, "Admiral, sir, we're receiving good news on the comms. The Martian Resistance under the command of former Councilwoman Madeline Powell is ready to launch joint strikes on six Federation ground bases on Mars. Our attack fighter squadron is currently sitting just outside the solar system, waiting for the word to jump into Mars' atmosphere and strike the seventh. The Resistance indicates that the bases' defenses are weak since they're moving so many troops to the ships in orbit. Both forces are requesting instructions. They want to know if it is time to go."

Admiral Dane considered the plan. He did not want to commit to an attack too soon, for if he did and it took Samus longer to destroy the Orbital Rings than initially predicted, then Cyrus would have a long time to call in reinforcements to Earth. If he did not, though, then they would lose a good opportunity to strike a severe blow and take away any reinforcements that would be able to almost instantaneously jump straight to Earth. That opening could be all that Admiral Dane and General Malkovich's forces would need to be able to land troops on Earth and not only hunt down Cyrus, but also free Earth from the tyrannical Galactic Federation. Eventually, Admiral Dane said, "Tell them to go."

The officer then gave the "go ahead" signal to the Resistance groups and the fighter squadron. Once the order was given, the admiral said, "Well, there's no turning back now. It's do or die."

"I say we _do_," Adam responded. The two then left the ready room to go onto the bridge and get the ship underway for the assault on Earth.

Meanwhile, sitting inside the main command room of the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. on Earth, Cyrus was studying the history of the Johto and Sinnoh Regions of Japan. He had initially wanted to have landed in Japan, which was his desired destination, but his military commanders had advised against it since Earth had amassed such a large number of troops in that country. Even with that minor setback, though, Cyrus did not have much to complain about. The taking of the Radio Tower had been quick and efficient. He was now in control of the capital of Earth, and troops patrolled the streets, keeping watch for any infiltrators. The search was also on for the Sinnoh League Champion Cynthia and others who might be able to rally a force that could oppose him and his people. So far, they were in hiding, and that was where he wanted them to stay, if they were not dead. It would leave him plenty of time to study all of the information that he could obtain about the Sinjoh Ruins. While the assaults on Aliehs III, Corella 5, and Aether had been beaten back, they had done their job and inflicted significant ship losses to the Galactic Federation in Exile, particularly to the Chozo Remnant and the remnants of the Luminoth. Without them, the N'Kren and Ylla ships would be able to slaughter anyone that came against Earth. He smiled; his forces could deal with any enemy force that came against Earth.

With the attacks on the military forces in Japan already having begun, and showing quick signs of success, he knew that it would only be a matter of time before he had all of Japan under his control, and he would then have all the remaining time in the world to find the Sinjoh Ruins. He turned his attention away from the history of the Sinnoh and Johto regions and turned to some military reports. _Excellent_, he thought. His military forces had already established a beachhead in Japan and were quickly moving northward, towards the Sinnoh and Johto regions. Even better than the report of that success had been that Team Galactic had been reassembled. Getting Mars and Jupiter out of jail had been easy and no one, save the citizens of Earth, complained about it. He had also brought in several other people to fill in certain roles. New operatives Mercury, Venus, Uranus, and Neptune were already hard at work searching for any sign of the Sinjoh Ruins. They had recently infiltrated Japan and were sending back reports not only on the possible locations of the ruins, but of the recent successes in the establishment of a beachhead in that area.

Soon, the General of the Federation Military, a Star Elf with long, black hair named Korro, came rushing into Cyrus's chamber and when he reached Cyrus, stopped, breathing heavily. Once he had caught his breath, he told Cyrus, "Sir, we are receiving reports from Mars. The Mars Resistance under the command of former Councilwoman Madeline Powell has launched an assault on six of our bases. A seventh has come under attack from a squadron of Federation in Exile starfighters. What are your orders?"

"You're the General of the Military, right?" Cyrus asked darkly.

Korro nodded.

"Then I expect you to take care of this," the Chairman bellowed.

"Yes, sir," Korro replied as he bowed before Cyrus and proceeded to exit.

After the general had exited the room, an officer sitting at a console, looked over at Cyrus and said, "Sir, I am reading an unidentified ship on sensors. It is sending us a signal, but it is not a code that I am familiar with."

Cyrus rose from his seat and went over to the console. When he saw the code appear on the screen, he immediately told the officer, "Open the shield and grant that ship clearance to land."

The officer looked bewildered. "But sir, you don't know who is onboard that vessel. It could be…"

"Just do it!" Cyrus blurted out angrily. "I know the occupants of that vessel."

Cyrus could only grimace. "Of all the times that the Space Pirates could come to Earth, why now?" he muttered to himself. He did not suspect that the Pirates were coming to stop him, but he _was_ concerned that their arrival could draw some unwanted attention towards him. He then told everyone, "Get a transport fueled and ready. We're going to Japan, but first, there is something I have to take care of.

He then went into the back room and closed and locked the door. Once he had done that, he went over to a secret computer that had the ability to send messages through subspace. He turned on the computer and opened a highly encrypted channel to the Space Pirate vessel. The image of Ridley flashed on the screen. "Well, well, so you decided to answer my transmission."

Cyrus grimaced. "The shield is down Ridley. You can come on through."

"We know," the Space Dragon retorted. "You said that we were allowed to set up a base in a mountain on your world. We choose to build our base underneath the mountain you know as Mount Coronet."

"Mount Coronet?" Cyrus blurted, unable to contain his rage. "Mount Coronet is off limits. I have need for it and I cannot allocate it to you. I _can_, however, give you Eterna City. That should be sufficient for your purposes."

"We've examined your world, and Eterna City does not have the facilities or resources that we desire; Mount Coronet does," Ridley said plainly. "Mount Coronet has a special magnetic field that distorts even the strongest of sensor scans. As such, we wish to build our new base underneath it."

"Out of the question!" Cyrus roared. "I won't let you land on Mount Coronet!"

"Yes you will," Ridley retorted with a grin. "Unless you want me to spill the beans about how not only assassinated Chairman Keaton for Elric, but that the only reason you became the Vice-Chairman was because you assassinated Keaton, and that was the price for your service to Elric."

"Alright, you've made your point," Cyrus said with resignation. Secretly, he was not really concerned about Ridley's threats, for it would not matter if anyone _did_ find out the truth about his involvement in the assassination of former Chairman Keaton. If all went will, he would accomplish his goals anyway, with or without the rest of the Federation. The problem would come if the Sinjoh Ruins did not lead to what he was hoping they would lead to. Eventually, he acquiesced to Ridley and told him, "Fine, Mount Coronet is yours."

"Thank you," Ridley replied with a note of haughtiness in his voice.

The channel then closed and Cyrus grimaced. This was not what he needed right now. While Mount Coronet was not his primary destination at the moment, he knew that it was the only other location where he could summon Dialga and Palkia if this plan with the Arceus trophies did not pan out. The last thing he needed was the Space Pirates to be situated underneath the mountain should he need to get back to Spear Pillar and attempt to summon Dialga and Palkia again. While they may hold no love for Earth, they did not want to die, which is what would happen if Cyrus accomplished his goals. With that, he went over and collected the two Arceus trophies and put them in his pocket. He then left the room and went over to get on the transport that would take him to Japan, and closer to the fulfillment of his dreams.

Meanwhile, back on the _G.F.S. Olympus_, Samus Aran was making the final checks on her shuttle, the _Tryclyde_. Everything was in the green. Once she was ready, she sat in her seat. The shuttle's cockpit was wide and spacious. There were all kinds of work tools nearby, but that was merely a disguise for the sensor jammers and the automated transponders that would send back false sensor readings of a simple engineer being hired to help oversee the maintenance of the Orbital Defense Rings. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her I.D. It read, _Nara Draykon, systems engineer for Bolt Engineering Systems_. She then put her false I.D. back in her pocket. She then shifted in her seat. Her worker uniform consisted of an orange shirt and brown pants, with a tool belt at her waist. Underneath her worker uniform, though, was her white neo-Zero Suit. Samus then flicked on the power switch to the shuttle. Immediately a faint low hum sounded that almost instantaneously rose in pitch until it disappeared. The first hum was replaced by another, more steady, hum. She then performed a final check of all systems. So far, nothing was going wrong. Once this was finished, she activated the radio and said, "This is Samus Aran, ready for departure."

Soon, a young male voice came in over the shuttle's radio, "This is _Olympus_ control. You are cleared to depart. Good luck."

The medium-sized shuttle then rose into the air and proceeded to turn towards the exit of the hangar. With a single push of a pedal at the bounty hunter's foot, the shuttle moved forward. As soon as it crossed the magnetic field, the field flashed. Once she was outside the ship, she looked around. More ships were arriving. She could see a wing of about fifty starships breaking off from the main fleet. She did not dwell on what they were doing, but she suspected that they were going to take on the fleet that Cyrus had stationed at Mars. Turning back to her console, Samus proceeded to plot a course for Earth. Once the coordinates were entered into the computer and confirmed, she pulled down on a lever to her right on the cockpit dashboard. With that, the ship proceeded to jump to warp.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

Samus's shuttle emerged from warp over Luna. Immediately upon emerging from warp, she plotted a course for the Orbital Defense Rings' docking hatch so she could get to work. During her minute-long jump, she took the time to plan her course of action on the surface should she be successful in destroying the Orbital Rings should she survive the process. She considered the formidable forces that she would likely have to fight. There were already reports of other bounty hunters, most notably Kanden, whom she had fought before, as well as other well-known bounty hunters such as Cylock, a male Simian that wore powerful battle armor, and Marda, a female Star Elf that oftentimes used seduction to get information from her targets, as well as her looks to get close to targets for assassination. There were also rumors of other bounty hunters such as Weavel and Trace also being present on Earth or on its Orbital Defense Rings. This was in addition to the other formidable security measures found onboard the rings. In addition to these defenses, she had heard that the Star Fox Team was also stationed at Earth and were likely either a part of the defense fleet, or were performing routine patrols around the planet and the defense ring. She felt a pang of sympathy and regret towards them should she be forced to engage any of them. They were much like her in that they did not, until they followed General Peppy Hare's orders, or request, to help out Cyrus and the Galactic Federation against the renegade planet Earth and its allies. Star Fox likely did not know that Cyrus was a criminal that was willing to sacrifice Earth at the very least in order to accomplish his goals, or that his true goals would likely destroy the universe. Had she not been the one to uncover Elric's treachery, as well as Cyrus's, she might be working for him at this very moment.

Her thoughts then turned to the other Galactic Federation soldiers that were fighting for the Cyrus on and over Earth. Many of these soldiers had fought against Elric and had been horrified and enraged by Elric's treasonous activities. She wondered if they knew what they were fighting for. She felt that they did not know of Cyrus's true goals, but she wondered if they knew about his willingness to sacrifice Earth to accomplish his stated goals. While the entire Federation had heard former Councilman, now President of the Galactic Federation in Exile Colin Williams' counter speech to Cyrus's, she knew that many either did not believe him, or worse, did not care. Elric had done a very good job in instilling a sense of discontent, anger, and even hatred towards the humans of Earth since the destruction of Daiban. Despite Earth's willingness to help the survivors of Daiban, many alien races and even humans from the fringes of the Galactic Federation hated Earth due to it kicking off the survivors of Daiban and the closing of the planet to refugees after it had discovered Elric using Earth's charity to send in Watchmen infiltrators. As it was, she knew that the taking of Earth would be difficult and that there was no guarantee that the Galactic Federation Civil War would end should Cyrus either be captured or killed.

Her thoughts then turned towards the mission at hand as she steered her shuttle towards Earth. As her shuttle left the orbit of Earth's moon and headed towards the orbital rings, her sensors alerted her to the fact that several hundred sensor signatures were scanning her ship. Two Stiletto-class starfighters came towards her and performed deep scans on her shuttle. She prayed that the automated transponder and her shuttle's stealth systems would be able to fool the sensors of the two fighters. Soon, a voice cracked in over her comm, saying, "We have you on our sensors now. Please identify immediately."

Samus answered, "This is Nara Draykon of the shuttle _Tryclyde_, of Bolt Systems Engineering. I'm here as part of the maintenance crew for the Orbital Defense Rings."

"Please transmit your security clearance code to confirm your identity and your mission," the voice stated.

"Transmission commencing," Samus responded.

All she could do now was wait as the two fighters flanked her shuttle. She knew that the fighters were likely in contact with a ship somewhere out there. As she continued towards Earth, she saw a capital ship off in the distance. It was a Pixie-class light cruiser. They were relatively old starships, but they were still quite capable in combat for ships of that size. She continued to wait as her shuttle approached the light cruiser, not daring to change course unless it was to avoid actually hitting the ship or flying too close to the ship for its own comfort. She made certain that her course would keep her from getting too close to the ship so as to be discourteous, but not so far away so as to look like she was actively trying to avoid the ship being able to confirm her identity.

Looking down at her sensors, she found that the two fighters were now breaking off. She heard a voice crackle in over her comm, saying, "Identification confirmed and code clearance accepted. Follow your current course to Orbital Ring Docking Hatch One."

"Understood," Samus answered.

She proceeded to fly towards the Earth. As she flew towards the planet, she could see the silhouette of the eight Orbital Defense Rings over the planet. She also noticed a large number of dots in the background, many of them in front of the Orbital Defense Rings. She began counting the dots and found that there had to be at least hundreds of ships, possibly thousands. The fleet that stood outside the Orbital Rings' defense shield alone numbered almost as much as the fleet that Admiral Dane had currently assembled. She looked past the Orbital Rings and she found that here had to be at least a thousand more ships in reserve behind the shield, able to hurl their ordnance towards any enemy invasion force while sitting safely behind the shield. She then saw a bright flash off in the distance as a subspace window opened. Immediately, one hundred new contacts appeared. Her eyes went wide at the number of ships that had just arrived. She knew that there was no way that Admiral Dane's fleet would be able to take the Earth with this large of a fleet arrayed against them unless he had a _lot_ more help coming. Even worse was the fact that many of these ships were not Galactic Federation starships. Instead, they consisted mostly of Cornerian warships, along with N'Kren and Ylla ships. Everyone would be involved in this fight. Samus closed her eyes for a second and sighed. For the first time in a long time, members of the ancient Chozo Alliance would open fire on each other, for there was no way that combat could be avoided between the two sides.

She continued to fly towards the Orbital Rings and she proceeded to make her way past several of the ships that were holding their positions. She began to get nervous, for she felt as if they likely knew about Admiral Dane's planned assault on Earth and were merely waiting for him to make his move. She had to warn him about the fleet before it was too late. As her shuttle continued on its way, her sensors alerted her to several more scans by Galactic Federation fighters and capital ships. The Federation was not taking any chances. Samus only hoped that her wig, and brown wig that fell to her shoulders, her contact lenses that made her eyes appear to be green, rather than their natural blue, and her uniform would be enough to disguise who she really was.

After a few minutes of flight, the rings were growing in size out the view port of the shuttle. As they were growing, her comm light flashed once more and another voice crackled in over the radio. "This is Ring One control to _Shuttle Tryclyde_, do you copy?"

"Yes," Samus called into the speaker in response.

"We are lowering the shield, prepare to dock at Docking Hatch One."

"I copy."

With that, Samus closed the channel and began making her approach towards Orbital Ring One's Docking Hatch One. She glanced out the view port once more and examined the Earth. She watched as a yellow lance of plasma emerged from one of the cannons on one of the Orbital Rings. Given its position, she suspected that it was either Ring Three or Ring Five. She looked at the impact spot the Earth and saw a small ring of fire form in the middle of the continent Europe. The explosion on the surface was quite small, though, and seemed to only be a few megatons in power, a barely noticeable fraction of the cannon's true might. Samus uttered a silent prayer for those who were killed or injured in the attack. She then glared at the Orbital Rings, knowing that she would take them down, no matter what it took.

Her shuttle soon banked towards the right and made its way towards Orbital Ring One. Soon, a yellow line appeared on her HUD screen, indicating the way towards Docking Hatch One. She followed the yellow line closely, not daring to stray away from it. As she flew, several squadrons of fighters flew by in groups of two, three, and even four. While many of the fighters were Stilettos, some were of the newer Rapier, Claymore, and Epée class. She turned away from the window and continued to on her course. A red dot soon appeared on the HUD, which was getting larger. She was nearing her destination.

She continued to follow the line as more and more ships were darting to and from the Orbital Ring. Given the number of transports, assault gunships, and starfighters flying to and from the ring, she figured that there was a fighter bay close to the docking hatch for the shuttles. The red dot began to grow until she could see that the red "dot" was no longer a dot, but a hatch that her ship could latch onto. She continued to make her way towards the hatch and glanced out the window once more. She could see figures in space suits putting the finishing touches to some of the armor plates. At first, she wondered how they could be working outside of the ring since the rings would soon reactivate the shield. She then realized that they were likely on the inside of the shield bubble and that they would be safe from harm. If not, though, then this was an indication that Cyrus, or whoever was in command onboard the rings, did not care about the safety of their personnel. She soon saw the figures make their way inside the ring via a man-sized hatch. She figured that the shield was about to rise soon.

As she approached the ring, she noted that the size of the ring was much larger than she had initially expected. She saw one of the menacing cannons jutting out from the hull of the ship and quickly noticed that it was not quite as long as the ring was wide. Looking at the ring, she guessed that it had to be equivalent to at least six decks of a starship in "height", from a crewmember's perspective. The barrel of the cannon was wide, which made Samus think that either the cannon could have its firepower focused, or it was so powerful when fired at full power that the barrel needed to be so wide so as to be able to unleash all of its energy without melting in the process.

She looked ahead and saw that the docking hatch was only a few hundred meters ahead of her. She shut down her engine power and let the tractor beams of the hatch pull her in. She made certain to keep the automated transponder and the stealth systems active, though. She made certain to check to make sure that she had a personal transponder that could give back false sensor readings should she be forced to go through a bioscan. Good, she had one. She made certain to only activate it once her shuttle was brought onboard.

Meter by meter, the tractor beams pulled in the _Tryclyde_. Samus merely sat at her station, waiting for the signal that her ship had docked with the ring's hatch. Eventually, she felt a shudder reverberate throughout the cockpit, as well as a message informing her that the shuttle had successfully docked with the hatch. Soon, she saw a set of doors open and the docking hatch retreated into the Orbital Ring, itself. As the ship was pulled in, the view of space was replaced with the walls of the docking hatch. After thirty seconds of slowly retreating into the ring's superstructure, the hatch stopped and Samus could see an open space out the view port. She figured that she had reached her destination. She checked her shuttle's sensors and found that there was an atmosphere outside the shuttle and that it consisted of a nitrogen, oxygen atmosphere with small amounts of water vapor and miniscule amounts of carbon dioxide.

As soon as she read that it was safe to leave the ship, the bounty hunter proceeded to deactivate her shuttle and activated her personal transponder that would give back the false life reading of her merely being an unaugmented human with no trace of Chozo or Metroid DNA. After activating the transponder and placing it in her pocket, she proceeded to go to the rear of the shuttle and get her tools. She found a large assortment of tools. She knew how to use each and every one of the tools, for she wanted to be ready for all contingencies with regards of having to effect repairs to her own ships in the past. She felt as if she had enough passing knowledge of Federation systems that she would be able to pass as an engineer while hiding her true intentions. Once she placed several tools in her tool belt and proceeded to load the other tools and even some replacement parts onto the load lifter, she went to open the rear ramp of the shuttle. The shuttle ramp slowly opened and descended to the ground. Eventually, it struck the floor with a resounding _clang_.

After the boarding ramp was lowered, she proceeded to disembark from the shuttle, pushing her load lifter in front of her as it floated a couple of feet off the ground. After walking down the ramp, she headed towards the exit. Over near the exit to the small holding bay, she saw a map of the ring, with a red dot signifying her location. She searched for the check in station, which, as it turned out, appeared to be right outside the holding bay she was currently in. She proceeded to step towards the door, which opened as soon as it sensed her approach, and she made her way through.

On the other side of the door, she found a check in area with several scanners and a small security access tunnel. This tunnel was undoubtedly a scanner of some sort. Samus could only hope that the sensors were not acute enough to detect that she was wearing a transponder and that she had Chozo and Metroid DNA, in addition to her normal human DNA, inside of her. The last thing she wanted to do was to alert the entire network to her presence before she had even made it past the first checkpoint. Outside the tunnel, two Galactic Federation Army Troopers stood guard close to the security with assault rifles held firmly in their hands. She could not tell if these were energy rifles or the standard projectile rifles that were generally given to the standard Army Troopers. Upon entering, the two troopers looked at one another and said, "Looks like we've got some more engineers here."

"Yeah, it most certainly does," the officer, who was dressed in a blue uniform and seemingly unarmed, manning one of the sensors sighed. "Well, let's get this over with, miss." He then directed Samus, "Please step through the tunnel and remove all metallic items from your pocket at once. Your metallic items will be placed through a separate scanner."

Samus grew concerned at the order, for she did not know whether or not her transponder would count as metallic. It was designed by Old Bird, and Admiral Dane and Adam had to have filled him in on the scanning customs of the Galactic Federation, particularly humans, but she did not know if this device would register as metallic. She decided that it would be best to not place it in the basket that was given to her. Instead, she placed all of her tools from her tool belt, as well as a few metallic credit coins that she was carrying on her, along with her wristwatch. Once she had placed all of her metallic items inside the basket, another security officer, this one merely wearing a gray Federation Security uniform with an energy pistol for a side arm and no visible armor, took the basket to place in another sensor. The security officer then returned to her and directed, "Please show your identification now."

Samus pulled out a datacard and handed to him. He took the card and examined it closely. After examining it, he pushed a button and a hologram of Samus's alias, Nara Draykon appeared. The hologram not only showed her alias's name, but also her age, height, weight, place of birth, and current address, which was the 213 block of Ion Street on the Jovian moon, Io. The officer then deactivated the hologram and placed the card into a scanner slot on a console near the console that likely controlled the large security tunnel scanner. After a few seconds, in which a flash came from the slot, the security officer withdrew the card and handed it back to Samus.

"It looks like everything checks out, Ms. Draykon," the officer said. "Only one more thing needs to be done." He then directed her towards the large scanner tunnel and said, "Please step through this small tunnel. This tunnel will scan you for any foreign contamination."

Samus nodded and did as she was directed. She stepped into the tunnel and as she walked, a green field of light appeared at the end of the tunnel. The light proceeded to sweep itself towards her and then washed over her. She continued to walk the few steps necessary to emerge from the other side. As she did so, she took in a deep breath. If anything were to go wrong, it would go wrong now. She felt as if she managed to make it past this checkpoint, that she would be free to hack and take control of at least a couple of the rings before she was discovered.

After emerging from the tunnel, she turned around saw the basket with her metallic items on the table next to the console. The officer manning the controls for the scanner went over to her and said, "Everything checks out, Miss Draykon. Welcome to Orbital Ring One. I hope everything here checks out and meets your satisfaction."

"I do too," Samus responded. She then looked over at a digital map pad and asked, "Is it okay if I pick up one of those map pads. My boss over at Bolt Engineering Systems didn't give me a map of the station. They just told me to report to Sector Three, Section Eight on Deck Three."

The security officers gave a chuckle. "That's probably because the Federation here doesn't want to divulge anything about these rings. They are, after all, mostly N'Kren technology, with some Ylla improvements and time dilation used in the quick construction of these rings."

"Woah," Samus said unsteadily. "N'Kren and Ylla tech, huh. I should feel honored to be working here, then."

"Yeah," the officer responded. "Just don't try to smuggle any of the tech back to Bolt Systems Engineering without Federation, or rather, Cyrus's approval."

"Don't worry, I won't," the false engineer assured him. "As tempting as it sounds, I don't want to run afoul with Cyrus."

The security officer nodded and told Samus, "You're good to go. Good luck on your first day in there." She thanked the security officer and, before leaving, she picked up one of the map pads and placed it in her pocket. She then went to pick up her tools, as well as reclaim her load lifter, which carried replacement parts should any repairs be necessary. Once she reclaimed her items, she proceeded to exit the checkpoint and proceed with her mission.

As she entered the ring, proper, she took out her map pad and activated it. A hologram of planet Earth and the Orbital Defense Ring network appeared. There were several sections of the rings that were highlighted, with a key at the bottom indicating what the various signs meant. The green dot indicated her current location, while the blue dots denoted the locations of the main computer cores for each ring. The green dots indicated the crew quarters, and the red dots denoted restricted areas where only military personnel were authorized to be. She pushed a few buttons and had the hologram zero in on her current location. Immediately, her current sector appeared on the display. She then entered in the request for the shortest route to the computer core of Ring One. Immediately, a yellow line indicating the shortest route to the computer core appeared on the display, with orange detours should such detours prove necessary or convenient. She then studied the route as she began to make her way to her destination. As she did so, she pulled out a datapad and pushed a single button on it. The screen came alive and showed a copy of her orders and her designated workstation. She was supposed to work on checking the main computer core of Orbital Ring One and perform a system update on the Orbital Defense Ring network. This was supposed to make the rings more resistant to hacking and tampering. For Samus, though, if she did this correctly, she might even be able to activate the self-destruct mechanisms for all eight rings from Orbital Ring One, itself, and take them all out in one fell swoop. She hoped that her cover identity would make this potential outcome more feasible.

She continued down the corridor, passing a number of other workers and military personnel. The military personnel were merely Fleet Troopers wearing standard Galactic Federation uniforms carrying side arms. As she walked by, she slowed down a bit to listen to the conversations between some of the troopers.

"Man, this is one boring assignment," one of the Fleet Troopers, a male in his mid-twenties with brown hair and green eyes complained. "The only thing there is to do around here is to stand and look out at the stars."

"And look at the fighters fly by," another male Fleet Trooper echoed as a flight of four Rapier-class starfighters flew by the cockpit. The Rapiers were fighters that definitely looked like they were at home in the atmosphere with two wings that thinned out to points, and a single rudder at the rear of the craft that stuck upwards, which also thinned out to a single point. These Rapiers seemed to be armed with both energy cannons, as well as six missiles located on two wing pylons. Given that the Rapiers were designed for air and space superiority, Samus guessed that the missiles were likely anti-starfighter in nature.

She was about to walk on by when she saw a flash out the view port. The two Fleet Troopers joined her in staring out the window. The flash did not die down and Samus was easily able to identify the flash as another subspace window opening. Ship after ship emerged from the subspace window. The bounty hunter could only watch as she saw that the fleet that was emerging consisted of Galactic Federation Asgard-class heavy cruisers, Olympus-class battleships, Gehenna-class dreadnaughts, and a few N'Kren and Ylla ships that looked to be the size of dreadnaughts at over five thousand meters in length for each ship. In all, one hundred ships emerged from the subspace window.

"Looks like the first half of the fleet's finally all here," the first Fleet Trooper noted casually.

"Half?" Samus asked, looking astounded at the arrival of the fleet. "How many ships are coming to Earth?"

"About six thousand," the second Fleet Trooper responded.

"Six thousand?" Samus blurted, trying to sound surprised, which was not difficult considering the fact that while she knew that Cyrus was assembling a fleet at Earth, she had no idea that it would be _this_ large.

"And that's just the first fleet," the first Trooper responded. "There are another six thousand or so ships on hot standby outside the solar system, too, ready to jump in should worse come to worse. And this isn't including the normal defense fleet around Earth, or the minefield that's been laid in the space between Luna and Earth."

"Why are they assembling such a large fleet now?" asked Samus.

"Because Admiral Dane is gonna be attacking soon," the first Fleet Trooper responded in a huff, expecting even the newly arrived engineer to know what was going on with the fleet. "Cyrus is close to finding what he needs to wipe out those Magic Lords. Admiral Dane'll have to launch his attack now if he wants to have any chance of stopping Chairman Cyrus. That's why he's pulling so many ships back to Earth and mining the area between Luna and Earth. Heck, there's even a minefield in the space between Mars and Earth as well."

"Aren't you concerned at all about what that plan to wipe out the Magic Lords might be?" Samus asked, ignoring the mention of the minefield and trying to sound curious without giving away that she knew exactly what would happen if Cyrus succeeded. "I've heard some rumors that there's some risk involved. Some have even said that Cyrus's success could spell doom for everyone."

"Don't believe everything you read in the tabloids, or hear from the so-called Federation in Exile, Miss… Draykon," the second Fleet Trooper snorted, glancing at Samus's nametag for confirmation of her name, as if 'Nara Draykon' was nothing but an out of town hick. "That's all just propaganda lies spread by the Federation in Exile spin machine. There's nothing to worry about. I mean, the most that will happen is that Earth gets damaged or destroyed in the plan."

"Shouldn't that concern you?" the 'engineer' asked. "I mean we're up in the orbit of Earth. If what the Federation in Exile says is true, then there's the possibility that Earth could be destroyed. Wouldn't that be bad for us up here?"

"We'll be transferring to the _G.F.S. Nautilus_ in a couple of hours anyway, so it won't really matter to us, and you'll likely be out of here pretty soon, anyway," the first Fleet Trooper answered casually. "I mean, we all know that Earth was just some arrogant self-sufficient planet that was too selfish and uncaring to help out the refugees of Daiban after it exploded. Don't expect any sympathy from me should this planet meet the same fate as Daiban. Besides, I come from Jigrad. I have no connection to Earth besides being a human." She looked at the other Trooper and his shrug indicated that he felt the same way.

Samus hid her anger from the two of them and merely continued on her way, saying nothing for fear of arousing suspicion had she continued the conversation. She walked away from them as casually as she could, but also as quickly as possible so as to restrain herself from hitting either of them. She proceeded to make her way towards the computer core. On her way, she found a small hover tram that would take her to her desired destination. She proceeded to board the tram, pushing her load lifter into a cargo container on the back of the craft. The cargo hatch on the tram closed and Samus then entered the rearmost car of the tram. The car was unoccupied and she sat in the seat closest to the door she had entered from. After the door had closed, the tram proceeded to take her towards her destination.

As she was riding the hover tram, she pulled out her map pad once more, activated it, and proceeded to study it further. She found several white points that were labeled as teleporters. One point was close to the connection tubes that connected the Orbital Rings to each other. This was something new. She found that she had actually been pretty close to one of the teleporters and that she could have used it to take her to her workstation in a flash. Now, she would have to wait at least ten to twenty minutes before she arrived at her destination.

As Samus rode the tram, she looked out the window at the various sights as they flashed by her view. She saw a large array of shops and diners on the base. She also noticed several troopers, particularly the bulky Techno Power Suits, as she took to calling the armored suits. While they looked particularly imposing, she knew that they were not nearly as dangerous as even the lowliest of Techno Soldiers, the Techno Serfs that were flying outside the Orbital Ring. She looked outside and saw a large number of Techno Soldiers, many of them either Squires or Knights. She did not see any Techno Lords, from what she was able to see, but there were some Knights that appeared to have more ornate armor and heavier weaponry than the standard knights.

The ride lasted for ten minutes before she saw that the tram was close to arriving at her destination. She pushed a button in her seat to signal the tram to stop at the next stop. After a few seconds, she felt the hover tram slow down. The blur of motion slowed and it was now easier to see what was going on outside the tram inside the Ring. She soon saw a tram station off in the distance as the tram continued to slow. After thirty seconds, the tram pulled into the station and came to a stop. Once it stopped, the lights above the doors turned green and the doors opened to allow the passengers to exit. Samus then proceeded to exit the tram, along with at least a dozen other workers and military personnel.

After she had disembarked from the hover tram she proceeded to follow the map to her station, the main computer core of Orbital Ring One. As she walked through the wide corridor, she glanced around and took mental notes as to the locations and numbers of military troopers, as well as the locations of the teleporters. She only hoped that if she had to use a teleporter, that she would be able to decipher its controls. She did not dwell on that now, she would dwell on that when the time came, if it came. As she continued to walk down the corridor, she noticed several doors that, according to the map, led to storage areas and armories. She suspected that the storage areas likely contained Techno Power Suits. She continued to follow her map until she came to a door on her right. Checking the map, she found that the door led straight to the main computer core of Orbital Ring One. Before heading towards the door, she took one last look around the corridor and saw numerous Army Troopers and security personnel patrolling the hallway. She then proceeded to near the door, which was protected by two Army Troopers wearing their dark blue power armor. As she approached, they stepped in front of the door and ordered, "State your identification and show us your work orders immediately."

"My name is Nara Draykon," Samus answered. She then took out her work orders, as well as her identification, and presented them to the trooper. The trooper took both and examined them closely. He scanned the work orders and identification card for several seconds before handing them back to Samus.

"Everything seems to check out, miss Draykon," the soldier said. "You may pass. If you find anything out of the ordinary or need any assistance, don't hesitate to call."

"Thanks," Samus answered. "I won't." She then entered the main computer core's chamber.

Upon entering the room, the doors slid closed with a hiss. Samus glanced around and saw that housed the main computer core was completely devoid of any personnel, with only a few service robots working inside the room. She did not doubt, though, that there were other security measures in place incase of an attempted security breach. She surmised that the robots that were present might also be part of the room's security system. She glanced around and saw numerous security cameras as well. She was being watched. She knew that if she was to accomplish her mission, as well as warn Admiral Dane of the extra ships that were defending Earth, that she would have to take down the cameras. She also contemplated what her course of action would be, whether she would take the quick and easy route and take down the Orbital Rings in one certain fell swoop, or if she would make certain to warn Admiral Dane and the others about the fact that the Federation was expecting their attack and had amassed a far larger fleet than expected. In the end, she decided that she had to warn Admiral Dane about the fleet and the fact that they were ready for them.

The first thing she had to do was disable the cameras inside the room, and then go for the robots. Before doing so, she went around the core, making certain that everything was in working order a couple of times. She then went over to each console and examined it to make sure that everything was in working order. She then went around and checked the inner workings of each console. She would first remove the panel on the side of the console and then, lying down on the floor with a flashlight in hand, she would examine the wiring, when there were wires, of the console. For those that had energy and/or plasma conduits, she would carefully open the console and check the conduits to make sure that there were no leaks or breaches in said conduits. While she found nothing wrong with any of the consoles she, nevertheless, went back to each console and began to work on it as if she had found a problem, or a set of problems. She needed to make sure that she could program the cameras to send back an endless loop of her working on various consoles and she felt that the only way for this to work would be to make it look like there were several problems with a number of consoles. She could then program the cameras to play back her working on the various consoles. It would likely take the security forces a while to realize that something was wrong, and by the time they did, it would be too late for them to do anything about it.

Once she was satisfied that she had enough material for her to make a convincing recording that would not be discovered to be a recording by the ring's security for a long time, she went to work programming the cameras, ostensibly doing her best to make certain that everything was okay with the computer systems. While she was not nearly the hacker that many Federation computer experts were, she knew her way around the computer systems of the four ancient races, particularly the Chozo computers, and the main computer was based upon Chozo mechanical computer technology. Those computers had been shared among the four ancient races by the Chozo, while it had been the Ylla that had shared much of their expertise in biotechnology, which helped the Chozo give rise to Mother Brain, the Metroids, and, indirectly, the Aurora Units used by the Galactic Federation and the Galactic Federation in Exile. She had no problem sending back an endless loop of her working on some problem or another on the consoles. While the problems had to be minor, she hoped that if she was discovered, that they would, at most, suspect that she was trying to acquire some N'Kren or Ylla technology for Bolt Engineering Systems. After that, she promptly shut down all security systems on the computer and disabled all motion sensors in the room while sending a signal that everything was still okay.

After the loop was in place and the other security systems were deactivated, Samus went over to the work robots, who were beginning to take notice of her work and went to shut them down. The robots were tracked vehicles with numerous mechanical arms allowing them to perform multiple tasks and work on multiple consoles. They did not have any weapons or defenses, though, and they had an obvious off switch, one that Samus thought was a little too obvious, on their sides. She carefully flicked the switch on the first robot and it immediately shut down. Samus took out her scanner and checked on the robot to make sure that it was non-functional. When she found that it was, she proceeded to shut down the rest of the robots. After the work robots were shut down, she opened up each of them and disconnected all of their wiring and extracted their batteries and other power sources and placed them on the floor in blind spots away from the cameras. She did not need the robots to be potentially eavesdropping in their deactivated states. She also removed any eye-like structures and anything that looked even remotely like a sensor, recording device, or transmitter. Once this was done, she got to work.

She first went over to the main computer core's console and set a sensor jamming field around the room. She then ordered the computer core to send back false sensor readings that indicated that everything was still normal. She did not know how long she would be able to confuse any of the other security measures, but she figured that it should be long enough for her to warn Admiral Dane and the others about the trap that Cyrus had planned. Once she felt as if she had taken all the precautions that she could to remain undetected, she went over to the main radio transmitter and opened a highly encrypted hyperlight channel to the _G.F.S. Olympus_. Once the channel was open, she called out in a clear voice, "Admiral Dane, Commander General Malkovich, this is Samus Aran, do you read me? I repeat, this is Samus Aran onboard Orbital Ring One, do you read me?"

After a moment, the radio crackled in and she heard the voice of Admiral Castor Dane crackle in, saying, "We read you Samus. What's wrong?"

"Admiral, I take it you haven't attacked Mars yet."

"No we haven't. Why? Is there a trap set up there?"

"No, sir," Samus answered. "The trap is at Earth. He knows that you're going to attack him, sir. There are seven thousand capital ships waiting for you at Earth with at least six thousand more waiting in the wings. Among them are a fleet of N'Kren and Ylla ships, as well as the Star Fox Team and some forces from the Cornerian Army. And that's not counting the squadrons of fighters, bombers, and interceptors that they have. Sir, you need to call in every ship you have, fast. There's no way you'll last very long against a fleet like that in a direct attack!" She then went over to the main computer and ordered it to compile readout and map of the locations of all of the ships that were arriving and their classes. She knew that the list would not be complete, but it was the best that she could manage at the time. It would have to be good enough. She then prepared to send the file to him. She went back to the radio transmitter and told Admiral Dane, "Sir, I am sending you an encrypted file on the fleet build, have your systems ready."

A moment of silence came, then Admiral Dane spoke again, "We're ready, Samus."

She then sent the data to Admiral Dane and after a moment, he said, "We've received the data." Another few moments passed before he spoke again. "Wow, Samus. You were right. This has 'trap' written all over it. Looks like Cyrus is pulling out all the stops. We'll use this new information, but we're still going to be launching towards Earth. It is now more imperative than ever that you manage to take down that Orbital Defense Ring network now and retake control of the Orbital Heavy Defense Platforms protecting the planet. It may be out only chance of sending down a search party to help search for Cyrus."

Samus then heard the sounds of knocking at the door. She said, "I have to go now, sir. They may have made me. Good luck."

"And to you, too, Samus," Admiral Dane responded before closing the channel.

After the channel was closed, she shut down the radio transmitter and erased all of the transmitter's logs. She then, in her mind, came up with the excuse that if she was questioned, that she was trying to understand some of the N'Kren and/or Ylla technology so she could take either a sample or understanding back to Bolt Engineering Systems with her.

More knocking sounded and Samus made the finishing touches to the room, making sure that everything was in working order as the door opened. Immediately, twenty Galactic Federation Army Troopers flooded into the room, flanking a single female human with blond hair and green eyes. She stood at about five foot four and looked quite young, as if she were barely out of her teens. A sense of dread entered Samus's heart as she recognized the sensation of having her mind scanned. She proceeded to close off her mind as best as a normal could and took on the personal of Nara Draykon. The young woman stepped closer to her and began her scan again. Samus could feel the probe in the back of her mind, but her own mental strength and resilience, as well as her experience in dealing with telepathic opponents in the forms of Mother Brain and more recently with MB had forced her to learn how overcome a scan or attempt at mind control without having any telepathic abilities of her own. The young woman frowned at Samus and it seemed as if her scan did not give satisfactory results. Samus merely looked over at her and asked, "Who are you? And why do you have a small army of Federation soldiers surrounding you?"

"I am Mari, apprentice to the telepath, Venus, of Team Galactic. I, too, however, am also a member," the woman answered.

"Why are you here?"

The woman gave a chuckle. "I'm here because you are tampering with the computer. I sensed that something was wrong and I am investigating. Now, tell me who you are, immediately," she commanded in a no-nonsense tone.

Samus answered, "I'm Nara Draykon, an engineer affiliated with Bolt Engineering Systems. We were hired by the GF as maintenance workers and I was stationed here. I was merely making certain that everything was working okay."

Mari studied Samus for a bit. "That last part's a big, fat, lie!" she then blurted. At that cry, the Galactic Federation Army Troopers proceeded to point their weapons at Samus, which prompted her to raise her hands in surrender. "Now, tell me, what are you doing here, really?"

Samus then lowered her hands and gave a defeated sigh. "Alright, you got me," she said with resignation. "I was studying the technology of the computer core and gonna take back some samples with me. I mean c'mon, it's not every day that you get a chance to study technology of two of the four ancient races," she pouted. "I just wanted a good bauble or two to take back, maybe get me a promotion. Heck, I might even manage to invent somethin' with this tech."

Mari studied her once more. The young woman's eyes started to glow as she seemed to be scanning Samus's mind again. Again, Samus did her best to throw off the scan. She did math in her head, thought about various sporting events, worried about what her 'bosses' over at Bolt Engineering Systems would do to her if they heard about this and she did not give them something good in return. After a few seconds, Mari said, "I don't believe you." Turning to the soldiers, she said, "Kill her!"

"What?" Samus blurted, still in her Nara Draykon persona. "So an attempt to get some N'Kren and Ylla technology is now punishable by death?"

"It is when I'm giving the orders," the girl chuckled. "Besides, I know you're hiding something. Tell me, what is it? If you don't the soldiers will kill you in three seconds."

Samus then smiled and removed her contact lenses, revealing her blue eyes. She then took off her wig, showing her blond hair. Suddenly, a golden light surrounded her body and clothing and the soldiers took aim at her. The soldiers fired at her with their assault rifles, but it was too late. The armor had formed over Samus and the first few bullets bounced off of her armor just before the shields came up. Once they did, the bullets merely proceeded to bounce off her shields, inflicting no damage to the shields whatsoever. She quickly checked her armor to make sure that its integrity was not compromised. The readouts said that it was still at one hundred percent. The energy-sheathed bullets had inflicted no damage. She then focused on the soldiers.

Mari's eyes went wide at the sight of Samus and she cried, "It's Samus Aran! Kill her you fools!"

The soldiers tried to comply, but their weapons were not up to the task. Samus both grimaced and smiled to herself. She would have to take down the Orbital Defense Ring network the old fashioned way, but she had managed to warn Admiral Dane and the others about the fleet that was assembled at Earth. And while the destruction of the Orbital Rings was prolonged due to the fighting, she knew that she had the capability to accomplish this mission. She then focused on the soldiers and the telepathic woman and finally returned fire.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

Samus first targeted the Team Galactic psychic, Mari, with her Ice Beam and promptly froze her solid. The blue energy blast that erupted from her arm cannon struck the young woman and formed a small circle of ice, which rapidly expanded until the woman was completely encased in said ice. The twenty Galactic Federation Army Troopers than proceeded to open fire on Samus once again with their useless assault rifles. The energy-coated bullets merely bounced off of her shields, and were deflected into the walls and some of the computer consoles in the room. A number of bullets were also deflected into the frozen Mari, who was promptly shattered upon being struck. Upon seeing that their own fire had killed Mari, the leader of the troopers cried, "Watch your fire, you idiots! You just fragged Mari!"

The soldiers turned to him and nodded. However, as they were doing so, Samus counterattacked by firing blasts of her uncharged Ice Beam at the troopers. One shot was more than sufficient to freeze each trooper. With each shot she fired, another trooper was frozen. Once their numbers were cut in half, the troopers got the bright idea to try to take cover. They quickly retreated from Samus. As they sought consoles and crates to hide behind, the bounty hunter managed to freeze two more soldiers, leaving only eight remaining. She knew that she had to hurry, for she did not know how long the frozen soldiers would remain frozen. As the other soldiers were diving behind cover, she shot the frozen soldiers again just to make sure that they would remain frozen for the remainder of the firefight.

After taking cover, the remaining soldiers switched to their freeze guns, realizing that their assault rifles were useless against Samus's armor and shields. They sporadically emerged from cover and took shots at Samus with their freeze guns. The blasts of energy, however, traveled relatively slowly to the bounty hunter's enhanced perceptions and reflexes and she was quickly able to dance out of the way of the blasts of freezing energy. She returned fire with her Ice Beam and froze two more soldiers. The other soldiers took more shots at her, but their aim was off and she emerged from the hail of freezing energy fire unscathed. She then picked off two more soldiers with another burst of shots. This left four soldiers. While three of the remaining Army Troopers emerged from cover and took aim at Samus with both their freeze guns and assault rifles, one remained behind to call in reinforcements and to alert everyone to the situation. He activated his communicator and cried, "Ring security, this is Corporal Lasing. We have an intruder onboard trying to hack the computers! It's…" but the trooper was silenced when Samus froze him solid with a blast of energy from her Ice Beam.

Before being completely frozen, the unfortunate corporal happened to drop the communicator. A voice on the other end of the line kept yelling, "Corporal, corporal, what's going on? Who's the intruder?"

The voice would never get his answer, for Samus quickly switched to her Power Beam and fired a single shot at the communicator. A single blast of orange energy struck the communicator and vaporized it, leaving a noticeable hole and burn mark in the floor as well. The bounty hunter then switched back to her Ice Beam and continued to deal with the other troopers.

The three remaining Army Troopers, seeing that they had nothing left to lose, charged directly at Samus and opened fire with all of their weapons, hoping to strike her with a few ice blasts, hopefully freezing her solid, and then shatter her with the bullets from their assault rifles. They never stood a chance. Moving faster than they could track, she moved behind the troopers and quickly fired a trio of Ice blasts into their backs. The three Army Troopers were instantly frozen solid by her blasts and the battle, if it could actually be considered a battle, was over.

After the battle had concluded, she fired several more ice shots at the frozen troopers to make sure that they would remain so. She then made her way over to the control console for Ring One's main computer core. Inputting a series of commands, the screen on top of the console came alive. Samus input several more commands into the console so as to try to link all of the computers on the Orbital Defense Ring Network to the main computer for Ring One. The computers for the other rings were not accepting her commands. She typed in another series of commands, trying to hack into the other computers from her current terminal, but found that she was unable to do so. Figuring that she had likely been detected and the computers currently had all of their firewalls and other security measures enhanced, she decided that she would have to take down the Orbital Defense Ring Network down the old fashioned way. Forgoing any further attempt to interface with the computer using her normal skills, she decided to let her Scan Visor do the work.

She scanned the computer with her visor and the display screen suddenly came alive with a series of flashing images. Some of the images merely showed the schematics for Techno Power Suits and Techno Soldiers, while others contained maps for all of the Orbital Defense Rings, as well as important locations for each ring, such as teleporters, the main computer cores, the main energy cores, control centers, and various restricted areas. It did not provide any access codes that would be necessary to get to restricted areas, but she was not worried about that. Her Scan Visor would allow her access to those areas should she need it. She then downloaded the map and information to her logbook for later use. She quickly took a look at the map and found that there was a teleporter a few hundred meters outside the door on the other side of the corridor. According to the map, the teleporter would take her to Orbital Ring Two, close to its own main computer core. She suppressed a grin. This may have been easier than she initially believed it would be.

Once everything was ready, she used her Scan Visor to gain access to the autodestruct program of Orbital Ring One. The red autodestruct screen appeared on the main display, the red background broken by white letters. A query came for the type of destruct sequence that the user wished for. Samus selected the two-minute countdown and full detachment sequence. This would allow the various sections of the Orbital Ring to separate and fly a safe distance away from the planet before the power cores detonated. Before initiating the autodestruct sequence, though, she locked out the computer from any other form of interference and then input the final commands for the autodestruct sequence. After the bounty hunter input the final commands for the ring's destruction, the computer's voice, a feminine sounding voice then said, "Autodestruct sequence has been initiated. You have two minutes to evacuate before ring destruction."

Samus wasted no time shooting numerous large holes into the console with her Power Beam so no one would be able to try to hack the computer and deactivate the autodestruct sequence. Once that was completed, she around and leaving the chamber as lines of red lights appeared on the walls and ceiling and began to flash. A voice then came in over the loudspeakers, saying, "One minute, fifty seconds until ring destruction." As she ran out the door, she quickly glanced over at the frozen troopers and noticed that they were beginning to thaw. A part of her hoped that they would manage to make it to either a teleporter or to an escape pod before the ring's destruction despite the fact that they likely were either a part of Team Galactic or knew of Cyrus's nefarious goals and merely did not care.

She entered the corridor and saw numerous Army Troopers, Marines, security personnel, and other members of the Galactic Federation military running to the nearest escape pod or personal teleporter. She turned to her right and proceeded down the corridor. She looked out into space and found escape pods already being jettisoned from the ring. She had a feeling that after Ring Two, unless the other main computers for the remaining Orbital Rings were pretty close to the entry and evacuation teleporters, that she would be in for a difficult mission. She continued down the corridor and as she ran, several humanoid-looking security robots, who were not concerned with their own safety, noticed the unauthorized person running towards the teleporter that would take her to Ring Two and proceeded to open fire. Scarlet bolts of energy erupted from small guns mounted on their arms and streaked towards Samus. She was too fast for the robots to be able to keep up with, though, so their shots went wide.

After a few seconds of running, the bounty hunter's Speed Booster activated and a field of energy surrounded her as she began to run at incredible speeds down the corridor. Several security robots were in her way in the corridor and she barreled through them, utterly annihilating the robots. Time slowed for her as a single tick of the clock felt more like twenty seconds. It took only ten of her seconds to reach the teleporter.

As she arrived at the teleporter, she heard the computerized voice blare, "One minute, thirty seconds until autodestruct. Unable to abort."

She activated her Scan Visor once more to hack into the controls of the teleporter. This turned out to be surprisingly easy, and unnecessary since there were no security controls on the teleporter. Confirming with both the map in her logbook and the directory on the side of the pad, she found that this teleporter would take her to Orbital Ring Two, somewhere close to its own main computer core. Wasting no more time, she stepped onto the teleporter pad and vanished from the ring.

Samus reappeared on a teleporter pad on Orbital Ring Two. The corridor she found herself in was completely abandoned, something that surprised her greatly, save for two security robots, which she took care of with a couple of energy blasts from her Power Beam. The robots fell over onto the floor with a clatter, each with a single massive hole burned into its torso. After felling the robots, she saw a window across from her that showed Orbital Ring One. She rushed over to the window in order to make sure that her autodestruct sequence was not stopped. She checked her timer and found that there was still one whole minute left on the clock. She watched as more and more escape pods were jettisoned from the ring, along with many escape shuttles fleeing the doomed ring. A part of her was concerned that her sabotage would be discovered and that as a result, the "long" time that she gave the crew to evacuate the ring would allow them to tighten the security procedures of the other rings. However, she felt as if it was worth the risk, for she did not want to be stuck on the ring being bogged down in the fighting only for it to explode with her still onboard. And even before that, she also knew that there were a lot of people that did not know about Cyrus's treachery. They did not deserve to suffer the same fate as the members of Team Galactic and those who were in on Cyrus's secrets.

The bounty hunter watched as each second ticked off the clock. At around twenty seconds left, she noticed the stream of escape pods and shuttles slow, and eventually come to a stop when only ten seconds remained on the countdown. She then waited as the clock counted down to the final second.

When the clock finally reached zero, she saw the various sections of the ring begin to break apart. Scuttling charges went off and pieces of metal were flung away from the ring as each sector broke off. Once each sector broke off, thrusters fired that carried each sector away from the planet. She watched as each visible section of Ring One flew out into space, colliding with several unsuspecting fighters, and even a couple of destroyer-class capital ships. While the shields of the destroyers managed to hold against the initial impacts, the detonations of the power cores in each section upon impact doomed the ships to death. As the various sections of Orbital Ring One exploded, debris was flung into the shields produced by the subsequent rings. She felt a faint shudder with the impact of the shockwave and the larger pieces of debris, which shattered against the exceedingly powerful shields produced by the rings. With the threat of Orbital Ring One neutralized, Samus turned away from the window and continued on her journey to the main computer core of Orbital Ring Two.

Meanwhile, onboard his helicopter taking him to the forward command center on the beachhead that had been established in Japan, Cyrus sat in his seat with an open laptop computer, reading the reports that were coming in from various fronts. So far, most of the six thousand additional ships that comprised the main battle fleet over Earth had arrived. In addition, inroads had been made into the Unova region of America. Looking over the dossier on the Unova League, he read that the champion's name was Alder. He was not familiar with him, but he had a feeling that Alder was not quite as formidable as Cynthia had been. While he had not engaged Cynthia directly, his lieutenants had, and they had been soundly defeated by the Sinnoh League Champion.

He continued to read that his forces had taken control of most of the European Union, with only the British Isles still holding out. He was not concerned about them, though. Their conquest was not important in the slightest. His only concern was Sinnoh, Johto, and Unova. Once he had control of them, then he could systematically send his forces to take over the other countries and regions of the world. And that would only be so that the threat to those regions would distract the rest of the world from his true goals and keep them from amassing troops in Japan. He looked over at the report of Mount Coronet and still seethed. He had not liked giving Mount Coronet to Ridley and the Space Pirates, but he had had little choice. His forces had not gotten far enough into Japan to risk letting angering Ridley and allowing him to spill all of his dirty little secrets. Even if Ridley had been making up some of the secrets, he still did not want to be associated with Elric any more than he had already been. Being seen as the same as Elric would draw undue scrutiny on him; and then he _would_ have problems.

He was about to close his computer and rest before arriving in Japan when the face of General Korro appeared on the screen. "Chairman Cyrus," Korro blurted in a worried tone, his fear evident on his face. "We have just received word from the fleet. Orbital Ring One has been destroyed! Our ground sensors also confirm its destruction."

Cyrus's eyes went wide with shock and anger. "Destroyed? How?"

"According to reports, it appears as if the autodestruct sequence had been initiated," Korro answered.

"The autodestruct?" Cyrus inquired loudly. "But how? The computers have redundant security protocols that prevent tampering! And what happened with the other security protocols? I have some top of the line computer security officers onboard those rings? What were they doing?"

"I don't know sir," Korro told him. "What makes this even more troubling is that the computers are of both N'Kren _and_ Ylla technology, much like the Aurora Units are both Chozo and Galactic Federation technology. Hacking them should be impossible if the intruder was using Galactic Federation or Space Pirate technology."

"But not if they were using technology of one of the four ancient races," Cyrus said in a dark tone.

"No, technology from the Chozo, Luminoth, N'Kren, or Ylla could breach it."

"Then we either have a traitor or a spy," Cyrus concluded. "Send the bounty hunters we hired to the Orbital Rings now. Have them find and kill this enemy, at once."

"Yes, sir," Korro responded. Cyrus then closed the channel. After closing the channel, she folded down the screen of his computer and sat back in his chair, a scowl plastered on his face. His forces needed to snap it up in Japan. If the Orbital Defense Ring Network fell, then Admiral Dane would be able to land troops on Earth and disrupt, if not stop, his plans.

Samus continued down the corridor, quickly switching to her Wave Beam, a weapon that was highly effective against mechanicals and would be highly useful if she were ambushed by any Techno Soldiers or Techno Power Suits. It would also be useful in disabling the armor and energy weapons of any Galactic Federation Marines or Army Troopers that she came across, too. As she was walking, she brought up the map for Ring Two. The map indicated that she was at least a kilometer away from her destination. She only hoped that she did not run into any real resistance before she arrived at the main computer core for the ring.

She continued down the corridor and soon came across a quartet of mobile turrets that looked like floating guns. Samus was not familiar with this type of robot and, thus, activated her Scan Visor, scanning the closest robot. The scan soon came up on her HUD, reading, _Morphology – FG II-Graham. This mobile turret can fire powerful bolts of energy at enemies. Pairs of these robots can form Wave Beam barriers across narrow corridors. These barriers are immune to many missile and beam weapons, being vulnerable only to the electrical variant of the Wave Beam._

The robots floated towards her and she saw a bulge of pinkish white energy form at the end of the guns. She immediately charged a shot from her Wave Beam and fired on the lead robot. The charged trio of undulating purple energy pulses erupted from her arm cannon and instantaneously crossed the distance to the mobile turret. The charged shot breached the shield of the robot and struck the robot directly. The pulse of energy the robot was preparing dispersed and electricity arced across the robot. It promptly fell to the floor and ceased to function. While it was falling, Samus quickly targeted its twin and took it down in the same fashion. Once they had been dealt with, she switched back to her Power Beam and fired a few shots into the downed robots in order to make sure that they were destroyed. She then focused on the two remaining mobile turrets.

Noticing some differences between these robots from the ones that she had just taken down, she activated her Scan Visor once more and scanned the next two robots. The scan read, _Morphology – FG-1000. This mass-produced mobile turret can fire concentrated bolts of electricity at enemies. It also has a penchant for ramming opponents as well. It is vulnerable to weapons fire when charging, though the Wave Beam and Plasma Beams are capable of penetrating its armor._

Samus took no chances with these robots and switched back to her Wave Beam. She charged her Wave Beam and shot it at the lead robot. One charged shot was all it took to take down the robot. Electricity arced across its body as it fell to the ground. The same fate soon awaited the final FG-1000. Samus then switched back to her Power Beam and made certain that they were destroyed beyond repair by firing a few shots into each of the fallen robots, shattering them. With the robots having been dealt with, she continued down the corridor.

Checking her map, she found that she still had a ways to go before reaching the main computer chamber. She knew that she would not be able to get in via deception, so she steeled herself for combat. It would not be long before people investigated the destruction of Orbital Ring One and she suspected that the security and military forces onboard the remaining rings would be on high alert. She had been surprised that she had only found a mere pair of security robots and quartet of mobile turrets protecting the corridor leading to the main computer core chamber.

She checked her map once more and found that the chamber that housed the computer core for Orbital Defense Ring Two was merely a few hundred meters away. However, her sensors also picked up some enemies up ahead as well, as the borders of her map turned red. A light flashed in the distance and Samus dove to the ground as a pulse of scarlet energy sailed over her head. She scanned the area ahead of her with the telescopic ability that had been built into her new visor. Sure enough, she found two Galactic Federation Marines in the distance. She hugged the edge of the wall as more scarlet bolts sailed down the corridor. She soon extended her arm cannon and took a series of shots from her Wave Beam towards the troopers. Trios of small undulating purple orbs streaked towards the Marines at nearly the speed of light, leaving them no chance of dodging. The Marine on the right was hit by three Wave Beam blasts, which shorted out the Marine's shields and energy rifle, causing its power to fluctuate. She then followed up with the Charged Wave Beam blast to the trooper on the left, which had already taken cover behind a support column. The column did little to protect the Marine from the Wave Beam blast as it struck him squarely in the chest and electricity arced across his body. The Marine's body spasmed and he gave a muffled cry as he fell to the floor, hurting and with his armor now completely deactivated and useless, but alive. Samus then neutralized the Marine on the right with a few more uncharged Wave Beam blasts. Like his companion he, too, fell to the floor with electricity arcing across his suit. In addition, he also survived the fight, albeit with a useless energy gun and suit of power armor. She then rushed past the fallen troopers, scanning them to make sure that they were still alive. Despite being a part of the enemy force, she took no pleasure in killing Galactic Federation soldiers, especially if she did not know whether or not they were evil. Besides, she had the ability to complete the mission without having to kill them, so their deaths would not have been necessary. With that thought in mind, she continued down the corridor.

She did not meet any further resistance until coming to the door that led to the main computer core. Standing guard beside the door were four Federation Army Troopers, with one of the troopers carrying a massive plasma cannon. She approached the troopers, who were waiting for the bounty hunter and opened fire on them just as they were drawing their freeze guns and readying the plasma cannon. Two uncharged Wave Beam blasts struck the two Army Troopers on the left side of the door and felled them, electricity arcing across their bodies. The other trooper and the Plasma Cannon Trooper, however, managed to get off a few shots before Samus took them down. While the icy freeze gun blast sailed wide the plasma cannon shot managed to strike Samus's suit and took off ten units of energy from her Energy Tank. That was all of the shots that the two troopers would manage to get off before being felled by Samus, though.

After the brief exchange, Samus approached the door. As she did so, she examined each of the Army Troopers to see if they were still alive. They were. She then looked at their helmets to see which platoon they belonged to, if any. She found that these soldiers belonged to the Eighth Platoon of Division Twenty of the Fourth Army. They were, in essence, grunt troopers that had been assigned to the Orbital Ring because they were not skilled enough to be expected to survive on the ground. Once she was certain that they would be out of action for some time, she went through the door and to the main computer core of Ring Two.

Inside the main computer core chamber, Samus was met by over a dozen FG-1000 mobile turrets, as well as an Army Trooper that had a stylized "G" on his helmet. Turning to Samus, and seeing who she was, he swore, "Oh, crap, it's _you_!" He then yelled at the robots, "Kill the intruder!"

The robots then proceeded to open fire on Samus and charge red pulses of energy while streaking towards the bounty hunter in an attempt to ram her. While the robots were engaging Samus, the Team Galactic Army Trooper went to the communications console and, after inputting a series of commands, cried, "This is TG Agent Zero-One-Five-Seven to Executive Charon of Team Galactic. Patch me through to Chairman Cyrus at once! I've identified the intruder, it's…" but he never got a chance to finish his sentence, for Samus promptly shot him with a single uncharged blast of her Light Beam. The beam struck him and bathed him in a golden light, which promptly disintegrated the human's body. She had used the Light Beam, feeling that the trooper was, indeed evil and, thus, the Light Beam would be effective against him. She had known the risk, though, since the Light Beam would not harm a truly good person in the slightest and had he been good, he would have exposed her to the rest of the defenses of the Orbital Ring Network. The voice of an elderly sounding man came in over the channel, calling, "Agent Zero-One-Five-Seven, this is Charon; what's going on? Zero-One-Five-Seven, do you copy?" Samus then put an end to the transmission by shooting the console with her Plasma Beam, burning a huge hole into it, instantly closing the channel.

She then focused her attention back on the more than one dozen FG-1000 mobile turrets. As they were approaching her, she opened fire on the robots with uncharged Plasma Beam shots. The shots managed to burn through the armor and fry the inner workings of the robots, taking them down quickly. The robots that she had shot fell apart and their wreckage fell to the ground with a clatter. However, Samus had only managed to shoot down two of the robots when the other eleven had either arrived near her or had finished charging their energy blasts. Samus dove out of the way of two of the turrets that were charging her while five others fired their blasts at her. She managed to avoid three of the blasts relatively easily. A fourth blast missed her entirely, but a fifth blast managed to strike her in the chest, taking off eight units of energy from her Energy Tank. Samus retaliated with several uncharged blasts from her Plasma Beam. The reddish-orange blasts of energy erupted from her arm cannon at a rapid clip and obliterated two of the robots, leaving behind nothing more than small shards of metal. A third and fourth robot were about to ram her, but the bounty hunter swung her left arm in a wide arc and managed to strike one of the robots, scrambling its circuits in the process, and send it careening into the fourth. Both robots then crashed to the ground for a moment. Samus then jumped into the air and landed on both robots, crushing them. Gears and wires emerged from underneath the soles of her feet. She then turned and focused on the remaining robots, who were once again charging their cannons. However, she got the first shots off and managed to shoot down three of the robots before they managed to charge their cannons. Upon charging their cannons, though, the four remaining robots unleashed a torrent of energy fire towards the bounty hunter. She proceeded to dive out of the way of the oncoming energy blasts and managed to avoid the volley. She then took aim at the other four and quickly shattered them with two shots from her Plasma Beam, each, before they were able to charge their next attack.

After the robots had been destroyed, Samus made her way over to the main computer core's primary control console. She did not care about wasting time ensuring that she was not seen. She merely activated her Scan Visor and hacked the computer the quick and easy way. The first thing she did was to disable all security protocols throughout the ring, save for the security protocols that allowed access to the main computer and to its chamber. Next, she used her visor to call up the primary control systems. Soon, she managed to call up the autodestruct sequence. She typed in the command prompts that appeared on the screen. Before going any further in the process, she pulled up her map on her HUD and studied it. She searched for the closest teleporter that would take her to Orbital Ring Three. Surprisingly, the next pad took her to within a few dozen meters of the next main computer core. Whoever had designed this series of rings must have been a fool, for intruders seemed to have easy access to each of the rings' main computer cores. As she studied the map further, she found that the ease of gaining quick access to the computer cores stopped at Ring Four. Rings Five through Eight had their computer cores all over the place, and many of them were likely under heavy guard. Still, she knew that she could deal with this Ring, as well as Rings Three and Four.

Once she was ready, she put in all of the information necessary to program Orbital Ring Two's autodestruct sequence. Once she entered the codes, the screen on top of the console turned blood red with white letters and numbers signifying the countdown to destruction. As soon as the screen changed, a feminine-sounding voice identical to that of the computer of Orbital Ring One said, "Awaiting final authorization code for two minute countdown."

Samus used her Scan Visor to glean the code from the computer, which was, _14257_, and entered the code into the computer. Once she was finished and pushed, _Enter_, the computer said, "Autodestruct sequence has been initiated. Two minutes until Ring destruction." The clock then began to count down from two minutes.

Samus was already heading out the door while the computer was still speaking and was making her way to her right and continuing down the corridor to the teleporter that would take her to Ring Three. She began to sprint down the corridor, for the teleporter was quite far away from the main computer core this time. After a few seconds of running, her Speed Booster activated. As it did so, she heard a sound that seemed to resemble a voice being played back on a recorder at incredibly slow speed, likely due to the fact that her perceptions while the Speed Booster was activated were so much clearer than they normally were.

As she was running, she took a quick glance at her surroundings. Just as with the personnel of Orbital Ring One, people were exiting their quarters and fleeing to the closest of the escape pods to get them off the Ring. There were fewer people fleeing here than there were on Orbital Ring One. She figured that this section did not have a lot of organic security officers and that most of the people were in other sections of the Ring.

She continued on her sprint towards the teleporter, running into no real resistance. The only resistance that had come out to meet her was more FG-1000 mobile turrets, FG II-Grahams, and some humanoid security robots. Samus plowed through the robots with the energy field produced by her Speed Booster and continued unabated to her destination.

After a while, Samus finally arrived at the teleporter. When she arrived, she heard the computer say, "Thirty seconds until Ring destruction." That was her cue to hack the teleporter with her Scan Visor and get her to Orbital Ring Three. She did so and after a few seconds, the teleporter finally came to life. The pad lit up and the data screens flashed on. Once the command console had fully powered up and was ready to go, she quickly programmed the pad to take her to Orbital Ring Three. Once this was done, the bounty hunter quickly got onto the pad and immediately vanished from Orbital Ring Two.

Samus reappeared on Orbital Ring Three. Checking her map, she found that, indeed, the main computer core for this Ring was only a few dozen meters away. Just as with the other rings, though, there was also a window that opened out into space. Samus could see Orbital Ring Two floating out in the void, the last of the escape pods launching from the ring, as well as several other ships leaving. There were fewer ships than she had expected. She checked the countdown clock and found that there were only a few seconds left on the countdown. She looked out the window as the last few seconds on the timer ticked down and once the clock reached zero, the Ring broke apart into various sections which then rocketed away from Earth and the other Orbital Rings. Once they were a hundred kilometers away or so, each section exploded. Samus did not remain to watch the explosions tear the sections apart and spray debris throughout the area between the Earth and its moon. She merely walked over towards the main computer core's chamber, which was completely unprotected, and walked on in.

The interior of the chamber was also unguarded, which caused the bounty hunter to become suspicious. There was no way that Cyrus would leave an Orbital Ring unprotected. She remained in the shadows and used her Scan Visor to scan the surrounding areas. Her findings astounded her, for there were no security precautions to speak of whatsoever. Stepping out of the shadows, she approached the console and used her Scan Visor to bring up its command interface. The command interface immediately jumped right to the autodestruct sequence, as if it were reading her mind. She proceeded to set the autodestruct sequence to two minutes. Once that was finished, the computer said, "Autodestruct sequence activated. In two minutes, this Ring will be obliterated." She proceeded to exit the chamber and make her way to her right.

Samus charged down the corridor as lines red lights flashed and computer gave an audible countdown to the Ring's destruction. Much to her surprise, there seemed to be no one onboard this Ring, for as she looked out the window, she saw no escape pods or evacuation ships being launched. The seconds ticked away as Samus rushed down the corridor and eventually reached the teleporter. Checking her map and directory, she confirmed that this teleporter would take her to Ring Four and that it, too, would take her very close to her desired destination. She knew that Ring Four, though, would be the last of the relatively easy rings to take down. Once she had confirmed that this was the correct teleporter, she used her Scan Visor to activate it. The teleported lit up and the bounty hunter stepped onto the pad. Once she did so, she stood still and vanished from Orbital Ring Three in the shortest leg of this mission yet.

Samus appeared on Orbital Ring Four and promptly began following her map down the corridor and to her next destination. As she did so, she glanced out at Orbital Ring Three in its final moments as she saw no escape vehicles leave the ring. After a few seconds, she saw the Ring break apart and looked away, for she knew exactly what would come next. The pieces of the Ring rocketed off into space where they exploded in a magnificent display of light. She did not stop to see whether or not the debris struck any ships and damaged or destroyed them. She merely continued down the corridor towards the computer core of Orbital Ring Four.

As she ran down the corridor, she came across the first real trouble that she had been warned of, for standing in front of her was a Techno Power Suit that was flanked by four FG-1000 mobile turrets. The Techno Power Suit was massive, easily at least twice the height of Samus, and was armed with large energy cannons mounted onto both of its arms. Samus switched to her Plasma Beam and quickly dealt with the guardbots felling them with single uncharged Plasma Beam shots. The problem came when the Techno Power Suit took aim at Samus. The bounty hunter made herself as difficult a target as she could and the suit seemed to have trouble keeping up with her. That did Samus little good, though, as when she charged her Plasma Beam and unleashed the subsequent charged blast, the beam splashed across the suit's armor, inflicting no damage at all. She then decided that it would be a good idea to scan the enemy, and thus, she activated her Scan Visor and scanned him. The scan read, _Morphology – Techno Power Suit. The Techno Power Suit is an incredibly powerful suit of heavy power armor designed for use by ground troops and is based on the design of the Techno Soldier line of armored suits worn by some N'Kren soldiers. Its design is based upon the armor worn by N'Kren Techno Soldiers. While its armor is virtually impervious all but the strongest man-portable weapons, it is not nearly as powerful as the armor of a Techno Soldier of any class, despite being significantly bulkier. As such, the N'Kren are not at all concerned about sharing the designs with those they call "younger" races. However, like the Techno Soldier, the suit is vulnerable to electrical and energy disruptive weapons._

After reading the scan, Samus's eyes lit up with hope. She had a weapon, besides possibly the Super Missile and/or Power Bomb, that was able to destroy this suit. She immediately switched to her Wave Beam and proceeded to charge it. As she was charging her Wave Beam, though, the Techno Power Suit took aim at Samus and opened fire. A pulsing green blast of energy leapt from the barrel of the energy cannon on the suit's right arm and streaked towards Samus. The bounty hunter managed to avoid the blast, having moved to her right just as the suit opened fire, and the blast sailed past her. The blast struck the ground several dozen meters away and detonated much like a Power Bomb would. A field of destructive energy expanded from the center of the blast and continued to spread out to about twelve meters in diameter. The amount of energy contained in the blast was staggering, for the floor beneath the blast was completely disintegrated, while anything outside of the blast's range was untouched.

The suit was about to fire the cannon on its left arm when Samus fired her Charged Wave Beam at the suit's cannon. The trio of purple undulating pulses leapt from her arm cannon and almost instantaneously struck the suit's cannon. Upon the beam's impact, the electricity arced along the cannon and the left half of the suit. The suit staggered backwards, barely able to maintain its balance as its left side was now either immobilized completely or malfunctioning terribly. Samus quickly charged another Wave Beam blast and unleashed it upon the armored suit. This blast struck the Techno Power Suit on the right side of its armor. Again, electricity arced across the armor and Samus's scans indicated that the suit was losing power. The suit staggered backwards again for a few steps before falling to the ground. Once it fell, it opened, revealing a young human woman, or girl, for she looked to be no older than fourteen Earth years old, with brown hair and blue eyes.

The girl crawled out of the suit and turned back around to look and see if her enemy was still in front of her. As she did so, she saw Samus taking aim at the deactivated Techno Power Suit. She scampered away as Samus then fired a Super Missile at the suit. The Super Missile struck the armored torso of the suit and detonated. The explosion inflicted minor to moderate damage to the suit, but Samus quickly realized that it would take numerous Super Missiles to destroy a Techno Power Suit. She then curled into her Morph Ball mode and rolled towards the deactivated suit. Once she was there, she laid down a Power Bomb and rolled away. After a few seconds, the Power Bomb detonated. The field of destructive energy erupted from the center of the bomb, much in the same way that the field of energy from the energy blast of the Techno Power Suit had erupted from its center upon striking a target, and vaporized the Techno Power Suit. Samus then returned to her normal form and continued on her mission.

Meanwhile, the girl fled towards the nearest radio and frantically activated it. Once it was finally active, she cried, "This is former Techno Power Suit Trooper Beta Five of Beta Squadron, to anyone who can hear me. I've identified the intruder; it's Samus Aran! I repeat, Samus Aran is destroying the Orbital…" but she was cut off when a pulse of plasma burned the radio console. The girl stiffly turned to see where the blast had come from, fearing that the bounty hunter had found her. Her fears were confirmed as she saw the bounty hunter standing right over her. Her eyes went wide with horror as she cried, "Please don't kill me! I didn't join this freaking army voluntarily!"

"What do you mean?" Samus asked, not at all surprised by the recent revelation. She had heard of children being conscripted into the military, at least in terms of piloting fighters and maybe driving tanks, but having them as foot soldiers was news to her, even _if_ they were being given powerful suits of armor to wear.

"I was taken from my home in the Unova Region of America," the girl answered. "I was told that either I would be piloting those suits of armor, or my parents would be arrested. Everyone on Earth has been commanded to become a member of the military against Admiral Dane and his allies by the orders of both Charon and General Korro."

Samus gritted her teeth in anger. This was definitely something new to her. Child soldiers had never been used by the Federation before. When she had wished to join at fourteen years of age, she had been forced to go through the academy first, even though it had not been necessary for her, and was not allowed to join a fighting unit for either the Police or the Army until she was at least sixteen; and that was only because her test and performance scores were so much greater than many adults in the army. Still, there was one thing that was bothering her. Why did the girl alert the others as to who she was. And she was not going to let the girl go without getting an answer. "So, miss, I just heard that you alerted everyone else that I was onboard. If you hate Cyrus so much, why did you just do that?" the bounty hunter asked. "Why not just run?" She had a feeling that she knew the answer.

The girl's eyes merely twisted in delight as she replied, "Because…I lied!" She then pulled out a bomb that strongly resembled a Power Bomb and activated it. Samus could barely believe her eyes. This girl was going to kill herself on the off chance that this bomb would kill her as well. Faster than the girl could react, Samus grabbed the bomb and tossed it down the corridor behind her. Looking back, she watched as the bomb detonated and expanded into a massive field of energy even larger than a field made by a Power Bomb. She then noticed her suit's indicators of her shield and missile status turn red but the numbers not decrease. She was being fired upon by the girl. She turned and stared at the girl, who was shooting a mere energy pistol at her. Something was not right here. This girl was clearly mentally unstable. Before moving on and leaving the girl, though, another thought came to Samus. What if the girl was under some form of mind control? She scanned the girl with her Scan Visor. The scan read, _Morphology – Human female, approximately fourteen Earth years of age. This human is showing signs of having undergone brainwashing. A low-level shot from the Wave Beam should neutralize the brainwashing._

She decided to see if that was the case by switching to her Wave Beam and powering it down to its minimal level. She then fired her Wave Beam pulse at the girl and watched as the pulses struck the girl and electricity arced across the girl's body. She cried out as she endured the attack and fell to the floor. Samus then scanned the girl again and the scan read, "_Morphology – Human female, approximately fourteen Earth years of age. Subject has taken minor electrical damage which has neutralized the brainwashing she had undergone_. The bounty hunter then bent down and asked, "Are you alright now?"

The girl slowly opened her eyes and looked up at Samus. She nodded. "I'm fine, now. How do I get out of here?"

"There should be some escape pods around here," Samus told her. "One of them should allow you to escape."

"What will you do?" the girl asked.

Samus gave her a kind smile. "I'm going to destroy the Orbital Defense Rings. And then I'm going to stop Cyrus. Hurry, you should get out of here quickly. I'm on the clock and there may be more security officers or robots that will appear if we dally."

The girl smiled and then proceeded to run towards the nearest escape pod. Samus watched as she entered the escape pod and as the door closed behind her. She did not proceed with her mission until she saw that the girl's escape pod was safely away and had safely entered the Earth's atmosphere. Once she was certain of the girl's safety, she proceeded to make her way down the corridor and towards the computer core's control room.

Adhering to the directions on her map, Samus followed the corridor all the way down to the main computer core's chamber at the end of the long corridor. However, there were other sources of resistance besides the Techno Power Suit that she had to deal with as well. A quartet of humanoid security robots stepped out into the corridor to meet her. These were different from the other security robots in the fact that they had shield generators on them. The moment they stepped out into the corridor, they deployed their energy shields and sprayed scarlet bolts of energy towards Samus. Samus did not bother to dodge the shots and merely started firing plasma blasts from her arm cannon. Orange-red bolts of energy leapt reached out and blew massive holes into the robots, felling them with single hits. While each single hit was fatal to the robots, each energy bolt the robots managed to fire on Samus merely cost her one unit of energy. In addition, once each robot had fallen, small purple floating energy units emerged from the robots. The bounty hunter left the energy units to float until she had felled each and every one of the robots. Once they were all destroyed, she charged her Plasma Beam and drew them into her suit, replenishing her Energy Tank in the process. Once that was complete, she made her way to the main computer's control room.

Upon arriving at the control room for the main computer of the Orbital Ring, she found two Galactic Federation Marines guarding the door. When they spotted the bounty hunter, they proceeded to open fire with their energy assault rifles. Scarlet bolts of energy erupted from their guns and lashed out at Samus. Samus managed to take cover behind a large crate that was close to the far wall and avoided damage. She quickly switched to her Ice Beam and charged a single ice shot. Once her ice shot was charged, she emerged from her cover and unleashed it upon one of the Marines. The blast of ice struck the Marine squarely in the chest and froze him solid. Samus quickly ducked behind the crate once more as the Federation Marine fired on her again. Several bolts of energy struck the crate and she knew that its structural integrity was weakening. She charged another Ice Beam blast and fired at the Marine. Her aim was true and the Marine was frozen solid by the blast. With the two Marines having temporarily been dealt with, Samus walked on by and entered the main computer's control room.

The interior of the computer control room was, just like in Orbital Ring Three, completely deserted. Samus activated her Scan Visor to see if there were any other security measures that were in place that would either slow her down or actually stop her. Her sensors could find no evidence of any countermeasures and she proceeded to the computer, which she easily hacked with her visor. The screen above the console came to life and images flashed before the hunter's eyes. Eventually, the image of the autodestruct sequence countdown appeared on the screen. Samus then input the necessary code that appeared on the screen to begin the two-minute countdown. Right after she pressed, _Enter_, the computer voice said, "Autodestruct sequence activated. You have two minutes to evacuate the Ring."

As the screen began its countdown towards zero and the red alert lights and klaxons sounded, Samus input another series of commands to the computer in order to lock out any attempt to deactivate the autodestruct sequence. She had noted that she had forgotten to do this with Orbital Ring Three. The fact that its self-destruct protocol had managed to go off without a hitch had been miraculous. She did not make the same mistake here. After she input the necessary codes, she turned and exited the room.

Outside the chamber, she saw that the two Federation Marines were already beginning to thaw, and would thaw completely within a few seconds. In that time, she fired a single bolt of plasma at the controls to the door to the computer core, as well as at the sensors for the door. Now she felt as if no one would have access to the main computer for the Ring. Once that was finished, she made her way over to the teleporter, which was not far away. On her way, she noticed several people making their way to the closest of the escape pods. She did not pay any attention to them and merely made her way over to the teleporter.

Once she arrived, she scanned the teleporter using her Scan Visor and activated the pad. The pad sprang to life as it lit up and a wall of light was seen emanating from the ring surrounding the pad. Samus stepped into the center of the pad and waited for a second for the teleporter to activate. After a second, the pad flashed and she vanished in a burst of light.

The bounty hunter reappeared on Orbital Ring Five and found that she was surprisingly close to the next main computer core. She was beginning to wonder if she had a secret benefactor onboard the Orbital Rings. As she had before, she looked out the window at Orbital Ring Four and waited for the inevitable. She looked at her own countdown clock and watched as the final seconds ticked away. Once the clock reached zero, the various sections of the Orbital Ring began to break apart and from each other. Once they broke apart, thrusters on the sides facing the Earth fired and propelled each section away from the planet so that it would not be hit by the debris. Some of the sectors even managed to strike a troop transport or even a frigate or two before detonating. Once they were a safe distance away, each of the sectors exploded in a magnificent display of light and fire. As with all of the other Rings, the destruction of Orbital Ring Four sprayed shrapnel against the shields that were being produced by the four remaining Orbital Defense Rings. With Orbital Ring Four having been destroyed, she turned to continue on her trek. As she turned, she came face to face with the one thing that she did not want to see on this mission, for staring her in the face was none other than a Techno Soldier; and given his appearance, it appeared as if he was at least a Techno Knight.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Cyrus was nearing the landing zone for his helicopter on the beaches of Japan. When he noticed that he was landing on its shore, rather than going farther in, he blurted, "Hey, why are we stopping here? Why not take us farther inland?"

"Because this beachhead is all we've been able to secure in Japan," the pilot responded. "Many of Earth's troops have been stationed here in Japan given its importance with regards to the Creation Trio and Arceus."

The Chairman grunted, as he had to admit that that was a good enough reason. He did not like having to wait, especially with problems up in orbit and the imminent attack by Admiral Dane and his fleet about to come, but he knew that it would be suicide to try to get into Japan by just forcing his way in at the moment. That was when an idea came to him. He activated his computer and opened a channel to General Korro. The face of the general soon appeared on his computer screen, and the general gasped at the sight of Cyrus. "Chairman Cyrus, I was just about to call you." He paused before continuing, "I take it you've heard, then."

"Heard what?" Cyrus asked, an uneasy feeling beginning to well up in his body.

"That Orbital Defense Rings Two, Three, and Four have been destroyed in a matter of half-an-hour," the general responded with trepidation.

Cyrus's eyes went wide. "What? Half of the Rings are already gone?"

"Yes, s…s…s…sir," the general stammered.

"What the hell are our forces on those Rings doing?" Cyrus roared in question.

"According to reports, evacuating the Rings once the autodestruct sequence activates."

"So no one has even tried to deactivate an autodestruct sequence once it has activated?"

"It certainly looks that way," the general lamented. "So, what were you going to call me about?"

"How many of those Techno Knights do you have ready for battle right now?" the Chairman asked.

"About a dozen," Korro replied. "Why?"

"I need them all down on Earth coming to assist in the takeover of Japan, immediately."

"But that will only leave the N'Kren loyal human Techno Knights onboard the stations to deal with the intruders; them and the other Techno Power Suits and Techno Serfs and Squires."

"What about the Technobles that you were making?"

"They're still undergoing the final stages of the transformation under the supervision of the N'Kren," Korro answered. "As per your orders, they have been outfitted with the best weapons the N'Kren and Ylla are allowing us to put on them, and they are not undergoing any brainwashing of any kind. These are all loyal to you from the beginning through and through."

Cyrus smiled. "Good. Now, just bring down those dozen Techno Knights to my forward command center in Japan and everything will be fine."

"Yes, sir," Korro answered. Cyrus then closed his computer and placed it at his side as the helicopter descended towards the landing zone on the beaches of Japan. With the Techno Knights at his disposal, he would have complete control of Japan within a matter of hours. And then, he would have all the time he needed to search for the Sinjoh Ruins and secure Mount Coronet and take it from the Space Pirates if his lead in the Sinjoh Ruins did not pan out.

Meanwhile, over Mars, a fleet of thirty Galactic Federation cruisers, along with a single Gehenna-class dreadnaught, sat over the planet, turning towards the surface. They had received numerous distress signals from the bases that were under attack by Martian Resistance forces and a squadron of Galactic Federation in Exile starfighters. They had since sent down a wing of starfighters to the planet in order to take out the Federation in Exile starfighters, but by the time they had reached the base, it had been too late. The attack squadron had all but destroyed the base, leaving nothing but smoking ruins. The Federation in Exile fighters, Stilettos and Katanas, were leading the Federation fighters on a wild goose chase, which was made worse by the fact that the Federation fighters had requested reinforcements, which the fleet commander had been very willing to provide. As such, the fleet was caught flat-footed when the Federation in Exile's attack fleet, lead by Admiral Cooper, jumped in right on top of them and opened fire. Scarlet lances of energy erupted from the Olympus and Archangel-class battleships and tore into the shields, and in some cases, the armor, of the Federation warships. The warships tried to return fire, but they were outflanked by the squadron of Griffin-class frigates that were escorting the larger battleships and they soon opened up on the larger cruisers as well. This was in addition to the starfighter squadrons, half of which had already been deployed, opening up with their salvos of missiles on the Federation fighters that had been deployed and were within combat range. The Federation fleet was missing the two wings of fighters that they had sent after the attacking Katanas and other Resistance forces on the surface of Mars. They were already grossly outnumbered by the Federation in Exile forces. This only made thing worse. The battle, itself, lasted only a half hour. It ended with the Archangel-class battleship, _Michael_, tore open the Gehenna-class dreadnaught, _Tartarus_ with its main energy cannons. Once the battle was over, Admiral Cooper sent a message to Admiral Dane and General Adam Malkovich, saying, "It's finished. The fleet at Mars has been destroyed."

"Good work, Cooper," Admiral Dane congratulated. "Keep the fleet there until Cyrus sends in reinforcements, should he do so. If not and we arrive at Earth, join us there."

"Understood, sir," Admiral Cooper responded. Admiral Cooper and his fleet then waited until Admiral Dane and General Malkovich came to launch their attack on Earth.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8:

Samus activated her Scan Visor and scanned the Techno Knight, hoping to find some weakness in the soldier that she could exploit in the unavoidable battle that was about to begin. After a few seconds, the scan came back, reading, _Bioform – Human. Subject's mind has been modified via brainwashing. A single uncharged Wave Beam blast should be sufficient to neutralize brainwashing. _

_Morphology – Techno Knight, Ground Attack MOS. Subject is encased in fully enclosed, virtually impenetrable battle armor. Subject is armed with a blade that can produce an energy field around it, in addition to chest mounted energy projectors that can destroy a small town in a single blast. Suit is invulnerable to almost any weapon save heavy starfighter weapons and capital ship grade weapons. Only the Screw Attack, and Wave Beam are known to be able inflict damage to Techno Knights via direct means. The only other weakness is the energy projectors at the moment they open fire._

After the scan was finished, a blue bar of energy appeared below her own health bar and below the bar, the label, _Techno Knight_, appeared below. Hope returned to Samus after she read the scan. She actually had weapons that would be able to inflict damage to these soldiers. And if she managed to time things correctly, she might be able to inflict damage to the energy projectors as well with some well-timed shots. The Techno Knight, however, was the first to attack by charging her with his blade, which had a sheath of blue lightning surrounding it. The sheath of lightning crackled as the Knight swung the blade. The thrusters of the Knight fired and pushed him forward at tremendous speed, fast enough that Samus was barely able to avoid the initial strike.

Samus dodged the swing and reflexively turned towards the knight and returned fire with her Plasma Beam. She was not surprised when the pulse of orange-red energy bounced off of the armor and towards the ceiling of the corridor, leaving a black scorch mark in the ceiling. She quickly switched to her Wave Beam and quickly fired a barrage of uncharged blasts at the Knight. Each blast splashed against the Knight's armor harmlessly. She checked the life bar of her enemy and found that it was not decreasing in the slightest. She surmised that only Charged Wave Beam blasts or the Wave Buster would be sufficient to inflict any real damage to the Knight. She then charged her Wave Beam and proceeded to unleash the charged blast towards the Knight as he charged her once more. The blast struck the Techno Knight squarely in the chest and electricity arced across his body, but the Techno Knight continued his charge, prompting Samus to jump into the air and perform a somersault, thus activating her Screw Attack, as the Knight barreled into her and brought his Lightning Sword down onto her armor. The energy field of the Screw Attack inflicted physical damage to the Knight's armor and she could see small pieces of metal breaking off of the knight right where she had struck him in the chest. A black scorch mark also began to appear as she was inflicting more damage. Her Screw Attack also protected her from the Knight's sword strike, but would soon be put to the test when the energy projectors on the Knights chest began to light up. Samus remained spinning in the air, for she knew exactly what was coming next.

The glow on the energy projectors of the Knight became more intense and after a second, the knight unleashed the built up energy from his chest projectors. Pulsing emerald green energy erupted from the projectors and engulfed Samus in a wave of destructive energy that was capable of inflicting minor damage to the shields of small capital starships. The wave of energy blew out a large section of the Orbital Ring's hull and traveled out into space, where it eventually dissipated. Fortunately, her Screw Attack managed to hold the energy that struck her at bay. Despite this, the threat sensors on her HUD were in the red and she could tell that if this stream of energy did not stop soon, it would start to damage her suit. After ten seconds, though, the stream of energy finally ceased. Checking her status, she found that she had suffered no damage in the attack.

After the energy stream had ceased, Samus uncurled herself and landed in front of the Techno Knight. She checked her HUD and found that the Techno Knight still had three quarters of his health left. Despite the constant abuse the Knight had suffered during her Screw Attack assault, she had inflicted relatively minor damage to him. The Knight then came at Samus once more and swung his sword at her again. Samus dodged the slash and the sword struck the ground, tearing a massive rent into the floor. Samus saw this as her chance to disarm the Knight and swung her fist at the Knight's wrist, trying to knock away the weapon. Her armor struck the Knight's and his grip on the blade loosened. Samus then kicked the soldier in the wrist and knocked the blade out of his hands. The sword clattered upon striking the floor and its lightning field dissipated. Samus quickly swept in and picked it up before the Knight was able to retrieve his blade. Once she had acquired the blade, she activated its lightning field and thrust it forward into the Knight's abdomen. The blade did not bite deep into the Knight's armor, though, and Samus saw no blood being drawn by the blade. She was both happy and concerned, for she noticed the health bar of the Knight decrease only slightly. She withdrew the blade and saw that it had only made a slight furrow. However, electricity was crackling around that furrow, indicating that the Knight had sustained damage in the attack.

Seeing this as her own chance to do some real damage to the Knight, Samus charged her Wave Beam once more. Once it was charged, she unleashed the charged blast at the damaged part of the armor that had the electricity crackling about it. She hoped that this would be sufficient to shut down the armor and possibly even force the soldier to revert to his human form. As it was, though, that was not the case. The blast struck the weak part of the armor and detonated upon impact in a massive display of electricity. Electricity arced around the armored soldier, but the suit did not disappear. The good news was, though, that the Knight had lost about a quarter of his remaining energy in the attack. The Knight staggered a few steps backwards, but was far from finished.

The Knight quickly recovered and stood still. Two of his chest energy projectors began to glow once more. Samus realized that this battle would take forever unless she took a risk, which this soldier may have been drawing her in to do. She looked up at the two lit energy projectors on the Knight's chest and charged her Wave Beam, locking it onto the two glowing energy projectors. She knew that she had to hit him the instant he began to fire, while avoiding taking a hit in return, for a single hit from a weapon that powerful would almost certainly be fatal. She waited for the glow to become intense and the energy projectors to fire. Just then, she noticed a subtle change in the projectors and fired just as the energy projectors fired towards her. She had dived to the right and managed to avoid taking a hit from the two green energy beams that had been launched her way. The tracking nature of the Wave Beam was put to good use as it adjusted its heading as she had moved her arm cannon out of the field of normal fire for the energy cannons in order to avoid the green beams of energy. The beams sailed wide of Samus to the left and continued until they blew two new holes out of the Orbital Ring's hull and into outer space. Samus's Wave Beam, however, found its mark.

The Wave Beam struck the leftmost active energy projector and electricity arced across the entire body of the Techno Knight and Samus could hear a masculine-sounding grunt coming from inside the armor. The Knight then fell to one knee, staggered, but still active. She checked the life bar of the enemy soldier and found that there were still a few small units left, though it had mostly already been depleted. A single charged Wave Beam shot should finish off the Techno Knight. She charged her beam and prepared to fire. As she was doing so, the Knight stood up, unwilling to surrender just yet, and charged Samus once more. Samus dove out of the way of the charge and fired on the soldier in his rear thrusters. The trio of undulating purple energy pulses flew up the engines of the Knight and after a fraction of a second, electricity sparked around the Techno Knight's armored body once more. This time, the damage was fatal. As the electricity was arcing across the armor, a green field of energy surrounded the Knight and the suit of armor disappeared entirely. In its place was a human male of around fifty years of age. The man fell to his knees, and after a second, to the floor. Samus then powered down her Wave Beam to its weakest level and fired a single blast at the man. Again, electricity arced across his body upon the beam striking him. Electricity continued to arc across his body for a few seconds before it dissipated.

After the battle had concluded, Samus scanned the human once more and the scan came back, reading, _Morphology – Human male. Subject has signs of having previously undergone brainwashing as well as a transformation that allowed the use of an Techno Armored Suit that have since been neutralized and the subject returned to normal._

Samus quickly turned the man over onto his back and her eyes were drawn to a label on the left side of his chest that read, _K-2L_. After a few seconds, the man opened his eyes and looked up at the armored bounty hunter. His eyes went wide with shock at the sight of Samus. "Who are you?" he blurted as he crawled away from the hunter.

"I am Samus Aran," the bounty hunter answered. She then tapped a switch on her chest and her helmet disappeared, revealing her blond hair and blue eyes. Her face greatly resembled her mother's, which the man was quick to pick up on.

"You look a lot like your mother, Virginia," he told her. Samus looked down at him sadly. He noticed her change in expression and asked, "What is it?"

"My parents were given by Cyrus to the Space Pirates and have become soldiers for them," she responded in a melancholy tone.

The man raised his eyebrows at her. "Are you sure?" he asked. "The last I heard, the N'Kren leader, Hi'Gor, was overseeing their deployment by Cyrus. There's no way that he would have allowed them to be given to the Space Pirates. Besides, they were Techno Lords, and not normal Techno Lords, either. There were rumors that Rodney and Virginia were given armor equivalent to Techno Kings and Techno Queens, if not Princes and Princesses. Cyrus would be an insane fool to give such powerful soldiers to an enemy like the Space Pirates."

"I saw them with Ridley on Shanera," Samus responded flatly. "From what I know of them, and the fact that they were acting like zombies when I saw them last, I'm certain that they were put under some form of mind control."

She then looked at the man intently and asked, "So, what's your name?"

The man smiled. "I'm Leon Kawalski."

He tried to rise, but found the task to be quite difficult. Samus reached down and helped him stand. Once he was up, she let him go and watched to see if he was able to walk properly. At first, he was a little wobbly, but after a while, he was able to walk normally. He then turned to Samus and told her, "Samus, you're going to destroy the remaining Orbital Defense Rings, am I right?"

She nodded.

"Then there are some things that you should know." He then paused before continuing, "First of all, there are other Techno Soldiers patrolling the Rings. These consist of Serfs, Squires, and Knights. Cyrus also called down a dozen Techno Knights to assist his forces in the conquest of Japan. However, that's not all. He's also developing some Technobles, Techno Soldiers that are in between Techno Knights and Techno Lords in power. They have the weapons, but not the shields. These soldiers are going to be loyal to Cyrus, alone, so they're all likely a part of his inner circle or at least know of his plans. In addition, most of the Techno Soldiers are loyal to the N'Kren, either through brainwashing due to the subjects being criminals, or are actually N'Kren themselves. All of the N'Kren are going to be Techno Knights and above. Don't be surprised if you even face off against a Lord or two on your mission. Also, there are other security measures in place, such as security robots, drones, and turrets on the other Rings, particularly on Ring Eight, which houses a great deal of weapons research and development departments."

Once he was finished, Samus told him, "Thank you for your help. Now get off this ring. I hope to destroy it quickly."

Leon nodded and ran down the corridor in the opposite direction of Samus's desired destination, and to the nearest escape pod. He opened the hatch to the pod and jumped in. Samus looked out the window as a small metallic ball flew past and down towards the planet. After his pod was out of sight, she put tapped her suit's neck, restoring her helmet, then turned and headed down the corridor and continued on her mission.

As she advanced down the corridor, she quickly came across a dozen of FG II-Grahams. Upon spotting the bounty hunter, they raised their Wave Beam shields over the entire corridor. Samus was not disturbed, though. She merely charged her own Wave Beam and targeted the closest floating turret-like robot. She unleashed her Charged Wave Beam blast upon the robot and watched as electricity arced across its casing. The robot promptly fell out of the air and clattered on the floor, but the other robots quickly closed ranks in an attempt to keep the shield up and prevent Samus from proceeding. Samus targeted the next robot and, with a single Charged Wave Beam shot, proceeded to fell the robot. She did the same for the rest of the ten remaining robots and in less than a minute, each and every FG II-Graham had fallen. Samus then switched to her Plasma Beam and vaporized the fallen robots in order to make sure that they did not reactivate or rise, on the off chance that their systems had not been completely shorted out.

After dealing with the Grahams, she made her way further down the corridor where a series of six treaded, tank-like security robots met her. These robots looked like metal boxes that were equipped with missile launchers, eight launchers per robot. Samus quickly scanned the robots, their scans coming back, reading, _Morphology – Missile Security Robot. Subject possesses eight missile launchers, each capable of firing either a fragmentation anti-personnel missile, or a Heavy Explosive Anti-Tank missile. Subjects have weak armor and a single Power Beam shot should be sufficient to destroy them._

After reading the scan, the bounty hunter did not waste any time shooting her beams at them, instead, deciding to Screw Attack straight towards the robots. The robots also wasted no time targeting the somersaulting bounty hunter and firing their missiles towards her. The missiles erupted from their launchers and headed straight towards the bounty hunter. The missiles almost immediately crossed the distance between the robots and Samus and impacted against the hunter. The shield produced by the Screw Attack rendered the missiles useless against her as they detonated harmlessly against her armor. She continued through the numerous detonations and proceeded to annihilate each and every Missile Security Robot at the slightest touch.

After the robots had been dealt with, Samus stopped for a second and glanced back at her map once more. She found that she was pretty close to the computer core for Orbital Ring Five. She only had a few dozen more meters to go before she reached the control room. Unfortunately, just as she approached the door, two Stealth Federation Marines, Galactic Federation Marines that wore black suits of power armor identical in shape and strength to normal Galactic Federation Marines, blocked the door. Activating her Scan Visor, she scanned them, her scan reading, _Morphology – Stealth Federation Marine. Subject wears a suit of power armor that has all of the abilities of the normal Marine's suit of armor, but is also equipped with a cloaking device. X-Ray or Thermal scanners, however, can detect these soldiers._

After she had scanned the soldiers, they vanished from her sight, prompting her to activate her X-Ray Visor. Upon activating her X-Ray Visor, the background became monochrome, with only the two Stealth Federation Marines really standing out. She did not care. She saw everything that she needed to. She switched back to her Wave Beam and promptly charged it. Once the beam was charged she released a blast at the trooper on the right just as the Federation Marines were opening fire on her. The shots of the Stealth Federation Marines hit true and Samus lost ten energy units to the barrage. However, her Charged Wave Beam blast also hit its mark. Upon being hit by the beam, electricity arced across the armored form of the Stealth Federation Marine and he fell to the floor, his suit decloaking due to being disabled by the Wave Beam. Samus's sensors, however, indicated that he was still alive, merely stunned. She then charged a second Wave Beam blast and pointed it at the other Stealth Marine. The Marine opened fire on Samus, but Samus's superhuman speed made her a nearly impossible target for the Marine to get a bead on. The Marine sprayed energy bolts towards Samus and prayed that he managed to score a hit. As he did so, though, he, too, went evasive in an attempt to prevent Samus from getting an accurate bead on him. However, her superhuman perceptions allowed her to keep up with him and keep her arm cannon centered right on his chest, not that she needed to with the tracking ability of the Wave Beam. She unleashed her Charged Wave Beam shot right at the Marine, who did not have the time to dodge. The beam struck the unfortunate Marine squarely in the chest and electricity arced across his body as he collapsed onto the floor, stunned, but still alive, his suit decloaking in the process. With the Marines having been dealt with for the time being, Samus switched back to her Combat Visor and walked past the fallen Marines, and into the computer core's control room.

Inside the computer control room, Samus was met by two bipedal security robots. These robots were armed with bazookas and immediately took aim at the bounty hunter. Before they could fire, though, she shot both of the robots with single uncharged blasts from her Plasma Beam. The beams burned through the torsos of the robots and blew massive holes into them. The first robot fell to its back without even being able to pull the trigger of its bazooka. The second one managed to fire its missile as it was falling backwards. Unfortunately, the missile was fired straight into the ceiling and blew a massive hole into said ceiling. Debris, along with the metallic corpse of another security robot, fell into the room and crushed the body of the security robot. The bounty hunter fired a single subsequent plasma blast to make sure that the new arrival was truly destroyed. Once the skirmish was over, she walked past the wreckage and made her way over to the console.

When she reached the computer's control console, she activated her Scan Visor, and hacked the computer the same way she had four times before. The console came alive and the keyboard lit up. The screen above the console lit up and illuminated the entire room. After hacking the computer, she immediately input the series of command codes that appeared on the screen into the computer. A series of choices for the autodestruct sequence appeared on the screen above. The computer then spoke, saying, "Please select autodestruct program. Know that once initiated, the autodestruct program cannot be deactivated."

Before making her decision, she studied her map and found that the teleporter that would take her to Orbital Ring Six was right outside the room and only a few meters away. She considered choosing the option for the one-minute countdown, but she decided against it so as to give any of the innocents that may have still been on the Ring a chance to get off before the Ring was destroyed. As such, Samus selected the two-minute countdown. Once she made her selection, the computer said, "Autodestruct program activated. Two minutes until final Ring destruction."

Once the autodestruct sequence was set, she proceeded to exit the control room and made her way towards the teleporter. As she exited, she looked to either side and saw that the stunned Stealth Federation Marines had disappeared. Not stopping to see if they were planning an ambush, she continued on her way towards the teleporter, knowing that if they had repaired their armor and were tracking her, that she would know soon enough. On her way, she encountered a series of Missile Security Robots, which she then shot to pieces with her Plasma Beam. It took her only a few seconds to reach the teleporter. Once she arrived, she activated her Scan Visor and activated the device. The teleport pad came alive and a wall of energy appeared. Samus stepped onto the pad and waited a few seconds for the pad to activate. The pad then began to glow and she vanished from Orbital Ring Five.

Samus reappeared on Orbital Ring Six near a window that had a direct view of Ring Five. She stared at the countdown clock as the seconds ticked away. She looked out at the Ring as a small number of escape pods were jettisoned from the Ring. She began to get suspicious since she had known that there were likely more people onboard than she had seen evacuating the Ring. She watched as the clock eventually reached zero. She stared at the Ring, fearing that the crew might have been able to abort the autodestruct sequence. However, upon the countdown clock reaching zero, she saw a series of explosions form on various symmetrical parts of the Ring. Once the sections of the Ring had broken off, thrusters pushed the various sections into the distance before they exploded. Samus noticed that the fighters and other starships were getting wise to what was happening to the Orbital Rings and had flown far enough away from the Rings so that once they were destroyed, that the self-destruct safety protocols would not take them close enough to said ships that the ships would be jeopardized.

Once she had confirmed the destruction of Ring Five, she checked her map to see just how close to the main computer core of Orbital Ring Six she was. The image of the map for Ring Six appeared on her HUD. Her position and the direction she was facing was marked with an orange triangle and a yellow line showing the path to the Ring's computer control room. The line indicated that it was several hundred meters away in the direction that she was currently facing. Wasting no more time, Samus immediately charged down the corridor and proceeded towards her goal.

A few seconds into her run, though, she was stopped by two pairs of FG II-Grahams. The Grahams deployed their Wave Beam shields and cut her off from being able to proceed further. Samus's sensors then picked up anomalous readings coming from behind her, and turning around, she saw several FG-1000s flanking a Techno Power Suit. Wanting to know whether or not the Techno Power Suit was occupied by a brainwashed soldier like the previous suit was, an unwitting participant, or whether this soldier was a willing accomplice to Cyrus's plans, she scanned him. After a couple of seconds, the scan came back, reading, _Bioform – Star Elf. Subject is identified as known criminal Kax Imala. Subject has been found guilty of the murder of a human family on Elvax and was sentenced to death before being inducted into the Techno Power Suit program. Morphology – Techno Power Suit. The Techno Power Suit is an incredibly powerful suit of heavy power armor designed to be used by ground troops. While its armor is virtually impervious all but the strongest infantry weapons, it is not nearly as powerful as the armor of a Techno Soldier. However, like the Techno Soldier, the suit is vulnerable to electrical and energy disruptive weapons._

That clinched it for Samus. She would not waste time trying to save a known murderer. To that end, she decided to neutralize the threats of the FG-1000s and the Techno Power Suit in one fell swoop. She curled into her Morph Ball form and proceeded to roll towards Kax. Kax leveled his cannon towards her and opened fire on her. Massive green orbs of energy were unleashed towards the bounty hunter as she rolled towards the criminal. The orbs missed the bounty hunter and when they struck the ground, they detonated into massive green spheres of energy that expanded to up to ten meters in diameter. Once she was close enough, she used her Boost Ball to increase her speed and jumped towards the Kax Imala. She barreled through the formation of FG-1000s and straight into Kax's Techno Power Suit. Once she arrived at the Techno Power Suit, she laid down a Power Bomb, which detonated upon striking the suit. Samus took cover behind the suit as it shielded her from the blast radius of the Power Bomb for the precious few seconds she needed in order to escape its radius. She rocketed away from Kax as the Power Bomb's energy field consumed his suit, and him with it. She could hear his scream of rage and fear as he was annihilated by the Power Bomb's detonation. She then turned around and noticed that two of the FG-1000s had evaded destruction by the Power Bomb. She quickly switched to her Plasma Beam and charged it as the two surviving mobile turrets began charging their own energy blasts. Samus finished charging her Plasma Beam first and she unleashed her Charged Plasma blast at the closest of the mobile turrets. The orange-red blast of plasma struck the robot and reduced it to slag. She then quickly dove out of the way of the other FG-1000's pink energy blast, which sailed by her to her left, while simultaneously charging her next Plasma Beam shot. She quickly rose to her feet and took aim at the remaining mobile turret as her beam finished charging. She then unleashed the Charged Plasma blast at the FG-1000 and practically vaporized the robot. All that remained were few shards of superheated metal.

Once she had finished the surviving FG-1000s, she focused her attention back on the FG II-Grahams. The Grahams had produced shields that were immune to all of her beam weapons save for her Wave Beam. As such, she switched to her Wave Beam and took aim at the Grahams. It took her a couple of seconds to charge her Wave Beam, and once it was charged, she unleashed the blast upon the Graham to the right. The blast phased through the shield that had been erected and struck the robot. Electricity arced across the robot's casing and it fell to the floor. As it fell, the shield collapsed, but there was still the other robot to deal with. She then charged her Wave Beam once more and then fired on the remaining Graham. The blast struck the turret in the center of its casing and it soon fell to the floor with a clatter, electricity sparking across its form. Samus then switched to her Plasma Beam and annihilated the robots once and for all.

Once she had finished off the mobile turrets, she proceeded to make her way down the corridor towards the main computer's control room. As she proceeded, she found several defense turrets mounted on the ceiling. She stepped back and scanned the nearest turret. The scan came back, reading, _GMX-04 Halberd-class Turret. The GMX-04 Halberd-class Turret is an effective point-defense system for many security zones. It is lightly armored, and nimble targets can evade its tracking system. Current scans indicate that the turret is at Level 3, which fires a highly powerful energy beam designed for use against heavy vehicles and even starfighters._

Samus grimaced. She looked ahead and found that there had to be at least a dozen such turrets. Despite having light armor, she suspected that the grid of turrets would be difficult to avoid. She also knew that taking a hit from such a turret would likely be disastrous. The last thing she needed was to lose a few Energy Tanks to such a weapon. Still, she knew that fast, nimble targets, which she was, would be able to avoid taking a hit. She then took a deep breath and charged down the corridor, firing Plasma Beam blasts at the turrets, picking them off with single shots as they fired orange beams of energy that were blowing massive holes through the floor, and if the shouts of some of the people coming from the level below were any indication, were also injuring or killing people on the deck below. One by one, Samus continued to pick off the turrets, hoping to take them out before they managed to fire, for she knew that damage that the weapons were inflicting on the Ring.

As she passed the first group of turrets, she quickly came across several more turrets as well. These turrets were of the same class, but they merely fired red beams of energy that were not nearly as powerful as the massive beams of energy that had been fired by the other Halberd-class Turrets. Samus took aim at the nearest of the turrets as she charged past them and picked it off. She did this for many of the other turrets that were in her sight. She felt as if she did not have the time to waste destroying all of the turrets, for there were dozens of the weapons throughout the corridor leading all the way up to the main computer's control room. As she ran, Samus fired at the closest and/or most threatening turret at the time. She zigzagged down the corridor, making herself as difficult a target as possible for the turrets. Still, despite her quick movements, there were too many turrets for her to avoid all of the weapons fire. Some of the scarlet energy beams were able to find their mark. However, since they were not set to Level 3, they merely inflicted a single point of damage on her shields, rather than taking off a few Energy Tanks with each hit. She continued to pick off turret after turret as she made her way towards the control room, shards of shrapnel raining down from the ceiling, the only remnants of the turrets that were present.

Eventually, she managed to make it to the door that led to the control room for Orbital Ring Six. However, she ran into another snag once she reached the door, for the door was guarded by two Missile Security Robots. Upon spying the bounty hunter, the Missile Robots rotated their missile turrets and proceeded to launch all of their missiles towards her. Samus immediately Screw Attacked towards the missiles and allowed them to strike her suit. The Screw Attack field prevented her from suffering any damage from the turrets and she somersaulted through the air and right to the door. Once at the door, she Screw Attacked through the two Missile Security Robots and utterly annihilated them. She then uncurled herself and pointed her arm cannon behind her and shot down two Halberd-class turrets from the ceiling before making her way into the control room.

Once inside the control room, she was met by another quartet of Halberd-class turrets. The Halberds caught her off guard and they fired their Level 3 blasts at her, scoring direct hits on the bounty hunter. The force of the blasts knocked Samus off her feet and sent her sailing right out the door. She landed in the corridor on her back and skidded to a halt after a few feet. As she came to a halt, she felt several more strikes against her suit as she noticed her defenses taking more damage. She turned and saw two more Halberd-class turrets firing Level 1 blasts on her. She turned to the turrets and fired a single blast of her Plasma Beam at them, taking them down. Several orange Large Energy Capsules appeared where the turrets had once been. She charged her Plasma Beam and drew in the two Large Energy Capsules. The Capsules replenished one of her depleted Energy Tanks. Once she was ready, she proceeded back into the room and was not caught off guard by the turrets this time.

She shot down the first turret with her Charged Plasma Beam, utterly vaporizing it, and then shot down a second turret with a single uncharged blast as the other two turrets opened fire on her. She managed to avoid their tracking systems and their shots went wide of the hunter, burning holes through the wall leading out to the corridor. She quickly then dealt with the other two turrets before they could fire on her again.

Once the turrets had been dealt with, Samus made her way to the control console for the main computer. As with the other computers, she used her Scan Visor to hack into the main computer and break it to her will. She was quite surprised that the security personnel onboard the Rings were not making a more concerted effort to protect their computers since taking over the main computers and activating the autodestruct was the only way to destroy the Orbital Rings without getting oneself killed in the process. After hacking into the computer, the screen lit up, as did the keyboard on the console. She typed in a series of commands and the autodestruct protocols appeared on the computer screen above. Samus selected a two-minute countdown, just as she had with the five Rings before. Once she entered the command into the computer, the computer's voice echoed throughout the room, "Autodestruct sequence activated. Two minutes until Ring destruction." That was Samus's cue to evacuate.

She left the main computer's control room and followed her map to the nearest teleporter that would take her to Orbital Ring Seven. As she followed the path, she was engaged by more Missile Security Robots and Halberd-class turrets. Not wanting to waste time dealing with the turrets, she Screw Attacked through the air and barreled through the barrage of missiles and energy beams that the robots and turrets unleashed upon her. She also barreled her way through any of the Missile Security Robots that interposed themselves between her and her destination. As she was somersaulting through the air, she focused on following the path to the teleporter, which was only a couple hundred meters away. Samus stopped Screw Attacking and proceeded to run at full sprint towards the teleporter, picking off any Halberd-class turrets that got in her way.

After about twenty seconds, she arrived at the teleporter and used her Scan Visor to activate the device. Once the device lit up and the pad began to glow, Samus stepped onto it as several Missile Security Robots rolled towards her and unleashed their missiles. She vanished from the teleporter a fraction of a second before the missiles struck the teleporter and destroyed it.

She reappeared onboard Orbital Ring Seven and found that the corridor was devoid of any personnel, and defenses. Checking her countdown clock, she found that there were still twenty seconds left on the clock before the scheduled death of Orbital Ring Six. She went over to the nearest window and watched as a small number of escape ships fled the doomed Ring. She then looked over at her countdown clock and watched as the seconds ticked away. Eventually, the clock reached zero, and once it did, she looked out at Orbital Ring Six. It was almost as if she was watching a rerun of her favorite television program as explosive charges broke the ring into various sections which rocketed away from the planet. Once they were a set distance away, they exploded. Samus felt the shockwave of the explosion strike Orbital Ring Seven, and the station shudder as a result. Once Orbital Ring Six was confirmed to have been destroyed, she checked her map so she could get to the control room for the main computer of Orbital Ring Seven so she could get it to join the other Rings. She found that she was standing just outside the control room for the Ring. She was beginning to suspect that this was just like Orbital Ring 3. As such, she casually walked towards the control room for the main computer and walked on in.

Inside the control room, she not only found the controls to the main computer, but also a Recharge Station. Not only did she find a Recharge Station, but she saw another door at the other end of the room. She ignored the door for the moment and focused on the Recharge Station. Wanting to make sure that it was a legitimate Recharge Station and not a trap, Samus scanned the station and found that it was, indeed, real. She then stepped into the station and stood on the center pad. Once she did so, a female computer voice said, "Beginning recharge process." A field of blue-green refreshing energy then surrounded her and washed over her. She noticed her Energy Tanks, Missile Tanks, and Power Bombs being completely replenished. After a few seconds, the field vanished and the voice said, "Recharge complete."

Once the recharge was complete, Samus made her way over to the computer console and hacked it with her Scan Visor just as she had done six times before. As before, the computer then came alive and the autodestruct protocols then appeared on the screen. Before selecting a protocol to activate, she studied her map of the Ring once more. She found that the nearest teleportation pad that would take her to Orbital Ring Eight was actually in a room just beyond this one. This could not have been any easier if she had designed it herself, which made her that much more suspicious. She chose the standard two-minute countdown and entered it into the computer. Once she had done so, the computer's voice stated, "Autodestruct sequence activated. Two minutes until this stupid ring gets blown to kingdom come."

Samus did not care about the difference in tone in this computer's voice compared to the others', but she still decided that it would not be a good idea to hang around any longer than she had to. She proceeded to make her way to the door at the other end of the room when she noticed a red blast shield over the door. She immediately fired a missile at the door and blew away its blast shield, opening the door. She walked on through and found herself next to a teleporter that was already active. She merely stepped onto the teleporter and then vanished from the Orbital Ring.

She reappeared on Orbital Ring Eight and looked at the countdown clock, which still had quite some time left on it before the Ring was scheduled to be destroyed. During that time, she looked around and saw a small window over by the wall. She was also quick to notice that the ceiling onboard this ring was quite low, much lower than it had been on the other rings. She guessed that it was no more than fifteen feet high, if that. She then went over to the window and looked out at Orbital Ring Seven, finding no evacuation ships or escape pods leaving the Ring. She watched intently as the seconds ticked away and the Ring came ever closer to its destruction. After nearly one and a half minutes had passed, she looked out at the Ring; only ten seconds left on the countdown. She stared into space as the seconds ticked away and when the countdown reached zero, she saw Orbital Ring Seven die. As with the others, the Ring broke off into various sections which then rocketed off into space. These traveled farther than normal and zeroed in on various corvettes and frigates that were in range of the sections of the ring. The sections then rammed the ships and detonated, taking the ships down with them. All in all, at least a dozen capital ships were destroyed in the destruction of Orbital Ring Seven. With Orbital Ring Seven destroyed, Samus concentrated on getting underway and dealing with the last of the Orbital Defense Rings that surrounded Earth: Orbital Ring Eight. Knowing that the eighth Ring had to fall, she proceeded to make her way down the corridor in an attempt to find the main computer core and destroy the ring, allowing Admiral Dane and Adam Malkovich to land troops on Earth so they could go after Cyrus and end his threat, once and for all.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9:

Samus continued down the corridor, studying her map as she went. She quickly found that unlike the other teleporters, the teleporter that she had used took her on the other side of Ring Eight, a world away, literally, from her desired destination. She then scanned the map to see if there were any hover trams or any other teleporters that would take her to where she needed to be. She found that there was a tram a kilometer away that would take her much closer to her desired destination. She proceeded to head down the corridor, hoping to reach the hover tram in a relatively small period of time, but as she began her journey, the hull of Orbital Ring Eight was blown inward towards her. She jumped back as the air inside the current corridor rushed outside, blowing the debris that had littered the floor out with it. In flew what looked to be a Techno Knight that was almost certainly a N'Kren soldier. However, he seemed to look a little different, for this soldier had shoulder-mounted cannons in addition to the chest energy projectors, along with numerous blade and spike-like protrusions coming from his helmet, knees, elbows, and even shoulders. Samus activated her Scan Visor and scanned the Knight, her scan reading, _Biology – N'Kren male._

_Morphology – Technoble, Primary MOS Space Combat. Subject is encased in fully enclosed, virtually impenetrable battle armor. Subject is armed with a blade that can produce an energy field around it, in addition to chest mounted energy projectors that can destroy a small town in a single blast, in addition to smaller cannons mounted on the shoulders. Suit is invulnerable to almost any weapon save heavy starfighter weapons and capital ship grade weapons. Only the Screw Attack, and Wave Beam are known to be able inflict damage to this level of Techno Soldier via direct means. The only other weakness is the energy projectors at the moment they fire._

_A Technoble_? Samus thought. This was new. She did not know whether a Technoble was comparable to a Techno Lord or if the Techno Lords were stronger. At the moment, it did not matter. She knew that she had to deal with this N'Kren soldier right here, right now. Still, a pang of regret entered her heart for what she was about to do. The N'Kren were members of the Ancient Chozo Alliance that she had read about during her time on Zebes. It was a time of peace and prosperity for all four races in the alliance and when the Magic Lords had attacked, they had done what no other race before them had ever done before: they fought off the Magic Lords' assault and drove the magical race to the verge of extinction. Now, they and the Ylla were fighting against the Galactic Federation in Exile, and with them, the Chozo and Luminoth. Samus could not bring herself to engage the soldier without trying to talk him out of this course of action, and the fact that the soldier was just standing there before her, rather than opening fire on her with his energy projectors and cannons, indicated that he might be willing to listen to what she had to say.

"You don't have to do this," Samus told the N'Kren soldier. "We don't have to fight."

"You're right," came a deep and powerful voice emanating from the Technoble. "You can surrender now, and I will make sure that you are treated fairly and as a defector, rather than a prisoner."

"I can't do that," Samus responded harshly.

"Then this battle will be unavoidable," the Technoble replied succinctly.

"Wait!" Samus called out to the soldier, who had since drawn a staff-like weapon with two blades on the end.

"There is nothing to discuss, Samus Aran. I am a N'Kren soldier and my people have sworn an oath to fight alongside our allies in their time of need."

"But the Galactic Federation is ruled by a criminal!" Samus cried. "Cyrus is trying to destroy this create a new universe in his own image at the expense of this one! Many of the races in the Galactic Federation are either too blind, or too hateful of the humans of Earth to see what he is doing! He's doing the same thing Elric did; Elric, a known servant of the Magic Lords."

"But Elric was Cyrus's enemy," the N'Kren came back. "He was merely waiting for his time to strike. And now, he is close to wiping out a force that threatens the entire galaxy, if not the universe. We cannot waste this opportunity. The Chozo and the N'Kren are fools for not joining us."

"Or maybe they see something that you and the Ylla refuse to," Samus retorted harshly. This brought a growl from the Technoble.

"Enough talk!" the soldier exclaimed. "You were given the chance to end this mission and you refused. Now you will face me in battle!"

Samus then assumed a fighter's stance and switched to her Wave Beam, charging it. A purple bulge of energy formed over the end of her arm cannon as the Technoble charge towards her at a much faster speed than the Techno Knight she had encountered. She figured that this was due to a N'Kren was faster, more agile, and had quicker reflexes and perceptions than a normal human. The Technoble held out his staff, which had two blades at the end that were now crackling with electricity and he took a swipe at her. However, despite a N'Kren being significantly faster than an ordinary human, Samus was not an ordinary human. Her infusion of Chozo blood had granted her superior speed, agility, and perception, which allowed her to duck underneath the N'Kren soldier's initial strike, as well as his subsequent stab into the floor. The staff imbedded into the floor with the stab and the soldier had difficulty pulling it out. Samus then retaliated with a charged blast from her Wave Beam. The Wave Beam scored a direct hit on the soldier and she noticed the life bar of the Technoble decrease ever so slightly, but she noticed that he was barely fazed by the attack, and that the sliver of the life bar that had been depleted by the attack was miniscule. This would be a long battle if it continued like this, and she could not afford for that to be the case since there were undoubtedly reinforcements coming to support the Technoble.

Seeing that this battle had to end quickly, she curled into her Morph Ball form just as the Technoble stepped back and decided to unleash his full firepower on the bounty hunter. Six blue streams of pulsing energy were unleashed from the Technoble's chest, along with several blue orbs of energy being unleashed by the soldier's shoulder cannons. Samus was lucky to have already been curling into her Morph Ball form, for the streams of energy missed Samus by mere millimeters as she ducked down to transform into her Morph Ball form. Wasting no time, Samus used the Boost Ball to propel herself towards the Technoble as he swept the streams of energy, as well as the volley of sapphire energy pulses downwards, towards the ball rolling at him. Despite the speed of the N'Kren soldier, he was unable to keep up with the bounty hunter's movement and he soon found his opponent directly beneath him.

He activated his thrusters and proceeded to fly into the air just as Samus laid a Power Bomb beneath him and she rocketed away, quickly transforming back to her normal form and firing a shot from her Power Beam in order to detonate the Power Bomb. A massive sphere of energy erupted from the Power Bomb as it detonated. Despite the fact that the Technoble had taken to the air, the fact that the ceiling was quite low meant that it did the N'Kren soldier little good as the Power Bomb detonated and engulfed him in its destruction field. Without any shields to absorb some of the blow, the N'Kren Technoble had to endure the entirety of the assault while he remained in its field of destruction. However, he would soon put the engines on his suit to good use as he rocketed away from the Power Bomb's detonation. Still, the Power Bomb had done a number on the soldier and Samus noticed that he had lost a full third of his health. She looked behind her and saw the Technoble land thirty meters away and glare at her, his armor still smoking and several of the sharp edges of the armor showing signs of having sustained damage and being melted from the energy unleashed by her Power Bomb. Still, the Technoble was far from finished.

The Technoble extended his staff towards Samus and proceeded to unleash a blue pulse of energy that instantly crossed the distance between him and the bounty hunter. The pulse of energy struck her in the chest and knocked her off her feet. She sailed through the air and landed a few meters away, skidding along the ground before flipping over back onto her feet, sliding backwards a few more feet. She looked at her status and found that the pulse had taken a full Energy Tank off of her suit. While she still had nineteen Energy Tanks left, she knew that she could not afford to take many more hits like those if she intended on reaching her destination. Seeing the energy projectors power up to fire once more, she Screw Attacked towards the Technoble and, watching her come towards him, he opened fire with his energy projectors and his shoulder-mounted cannons. The stream of blue energy rocketed towards Samus and struck her when she was still ten meters away.

The blast of energy stopped Samus in her tracks and all of her threat sensors were flashing, indicating that the power of this energy blast was even stronger than the one she had endured at the hands of the Techno Knight. Still, she would not let herself be stopped by the Technoble. She continued to surge towards the N'Kren soldier as his energy blast was buffeting her, and setting the air inside the corridor on fire. Still, the bounty hunter continued towards him undaunted, despite the fact that the energy of the Technoble's energy projectors was now leaking through the Screw Attack shield and inflicting damage to her shields. This did not stop her, though, as she eventually reached the Technoble and plowed straight into his energy projectors. The Screw Attack's energy field immediately broke the energy projectors that it had come into contact with upon impact and the energy assault ceased. The projectors exploded, releasing a tremendous amount of energy outwards; so much that Samus was thrown down the corridor several dozen feet. The N'Kren soldier fared little better as he was hurled through the air in the opposite direction as well. He landed in a heap a few dozen meters from a door that would lead into another sector of the station. He was slow to rise, electricity sparking across most of his suit, and from numerous breaches in his armor, revealing the uniform of the soldier underneath. Still, the suit was not destroyed yet, and his enemy had taken another hit. She had already lost three Energy Tanks in this battle, and even without his energy projectors, he still had access to his shoulder cannons.

He soon noticed a trio of undulating purple pulses coming at him. It was too late, for as soon as he saw them coming, they struck his armor and inflicted more damage to the armor's systems. His HUD flickered with the hit and he noticed that his shoulder cannons were not responding to his order to fire. In addition, he was unable to open a channel to anyone else, or call his skiff in to assist in the battle. _Damn_, he thought. _That Wave Beam blast disabled my suit's weapons and I can't call over my crystal skiff to help me out_. He also suspected that his engines were likely down as well. Things were not looking good for him. He looked at his status screen and found that his suit was at ten percent armor integrity, with numerous breaches on his arms, legs, and even head, along with his systems fluctuating between thirty and thirty-five percent of normal parameters. He gripped his staff and took aim at the bounty hunter that was keeping her distance. She was dancing around the corridor, making certain to be a difficult target to track. He fired his staff towards her, but the blasts went wide, either striking the wall behind her, gouging noticeable holes in them, or certain outcroppings that jutted out from the wall, vaporizing them.

It was then that Samus finished the fight by unleashing one last Charged Wave Beam blast towards the N'Kren Technoble. The pulses rocketed from her arm cannon and almost instantly crossed the distance to the N'Kren soldier. The pulse struck the soldier squarely in the chest and electricity arced across all of his armor once more for a few seconds until it stopped in its entirety. That was when everything shut down. The armor weighed heavily on the N'Kren's body. Moving his arms was like trying to swim against a riptide current. His HUD disappeared and he only had two narrow windows into the outside world. He undid the manual releases for the armor and suit of armor fell off of him in pieces. As the pieces of armor fell off, Samus fired at each and every piece of armor with her Plasma Beam. She knew that her beam would not likely destroy them, but she wanted to make sure that there was nothing salvageable from the armor and that it was all nothing more than dead weight.

After the armor fell off of the N'Kren soldier, he was revealed. He was reptilian in appearance with broad shoulders, a muscular body, and green, scaly skin. He resembled an Urtragian Space Pirate in appearance, but was more powerfully built and of nobler stature. The soldier was also armed with a pistol at his side, which he drew and tried to fire at Samus. However, the bounty hunter was quicker on the draw and shot the pistol out of his hand with a single uncharged Plasma Beam shot. She then switched to the Wave Beam and shot him once with that. The N'Kren soldier staggered backwards, but was not felled yet. He drew a knife and charged towards Samus at blinding speed. Samus then proceeded to shoot him again, partially stopping his forward motion. It took two more blasts from the Wave Beam before the N'Kren soldier finally fell to the floor, releasing his knife. Samus then went over to him, picked up his knife, and threw it into the wall, where it stuck with almost its entire blade embedded into the wall. She looked at him closely and found that he was still alive, and that he seemed to be in no danger of dying or being permanently paralyzed by the Wave Beam blasts. The soldier looked up at her weakly and scowled as Samus pointed her arm cannon at him, but did not fire or even charge her beam. "Well, what are you waiting for?" the soldier croaked. "Finish it."

Samus looked down at the fallen soldier and continued to hold her arm cannon on the warrior, but refused to fire. "Why do you hesitate," he asked sharply. "Kill me!"

"No," Samus eventually responded, lowering her arm cannon. "Not like this."

"Why not?"

She looked into the soldier's eyes and replied, "Because your people were allied once with the Chozo, and an integral part of their alliance. The Chozo found me on K-2L and brought me to their homeworld of Zebes and giving me the gift of their blood, and a suit of armor. They trained me to be a great warrior, but also gave me the opportunity to follow whatever path I chose. Your people did the same for my parents. You saved them from the massacre on K-2L. You then revived them and nursed them back to health, giving them the suits of Techno Lords, the strongest known suits of Techno Armor. You even let them return to their people. In doing so, you have done more for me than many others have. However, now, my parents have been given over to the Space Pirates and brainwashed into being slave soldier for them."

The N'Kren soldier's eyes went wide. "No," the N'Kren soldier stated firmly. "The Arans were only asked to return to their people when Cyrus asked for them to be allowed to return. He would not simply give them over to them."

"Yet it seems as if he did," Samus retorted. "Unless a pair of Techno Lords are weak enough to be beaten by a bunch of Space Pirates."

This brought a chuckle from the N'Kren soldier. "Even the weakest of Techno Soldiers would massacre any Space Pirate force short of a capital ship, of which they have few, if any, left."

"Then the only possible answer is that Cyrus gave them over to the Space Pirates and they were enslaved by them," Samus responded once more.

The N'Kren soldier growled. "I don't believe you." He then drew out an energy pistol and attempted to shoot Samus. However, the bounty hunter was faster and proceeded to raise her arm cannon and shoot the N'Kren soldier in the chest. Electricity arced across the N'Kren soldier's body and he then fell to the floor, unconscious. Samus proceeded to pull the unconscious N'Kren over to an escape pod hatch that was close by. She opened it and then shoved him through. Once he was inside the pod, she closed the door and launched the pod into space. She then walked away, figuring that he had a better chance of surviving and being rescued out in space than finding an escape pod later once she finished off Orbital Ring Eight. With the N'Kren Technoble having been dealt with, she proceeded down the corridor and continued on her mission.

About a hundred yards further down the corridor, she encountered a gauntlet of Halberd-class turrets. She wasted no time trying to fight or shoot down the turrets and merely sprang forward and Screw Attacked through the gauntlet. The turrets fired their Level Three beams at her and orange lances of death lashed out at her. The shield produced by her Screw Attack protected her from harm and she plowed through any of the turrets that were in her direct flight path, vaporizing them in the process. The beams that did not manage to strike Samus gouged massive furrows into the floor. Once Samus had made her way past the turrets, she landed and continued to sprint towards her destination.

Not too far away from the turrets, she encountered a dozen small, aerial robots hovering in front of her. Not having seen this type of robot before, she activated her Scan Visor and scanned them for her logbook. The scan came up, reading, _Morphology – M-180 Air Defense Drone, anti-personnel variant. This model of the drone is designed for quick strikes against infantry targets at range. It is equipped with twin rapid-fire anti-personnel energy pulse cannons. Object can also be fitted with long-range sensors, making it an effective scout, or a variety of other weapons, including light anti-vehicle weapons and missiles, making it effective for both defense, and as part of a vanguard force for attack. Being cheap and easy to mass-produce, this drone is popular with the Galactic Federation military as a disposable attack and security force_.

Once she had finished reading the scan, she quickly switched back to her Combat Visor and prepared for the fight. A quick scan of the dozen drone indicated that each one of them was equipped with the twin anti-personnel cannons. She was glad, for this would make getting through them easier and less costly in the long run. Once she was ready, she leveled her arm cannon towards them and began her charge. Balls of yellow-orange energy erupted from her cannon as she fired uncharged Power Beam shots at the defense drones. Not having any defensive shields to speak of, the drones fell to single shots from Samus's arm cannon. As she felled more drones, the debris left behind by said drones began to litter the corridor. As she was shooting down the drones, the aerial robots returned fire on the hunter, spraying scarlet bolts of destructive energy her way. Samus was quick enough to evade the tracking systems of the robots most of the time, but a few of the energy bolts managed to tag her, taking off a couple of units of energy per hit. As she took down more of the units, she noticed that the drones were leaving behind small, purple Energy Capsules. That made her want to finish off the last few drones extra quickly since she knew that they would dissipate if she did not collect them fast enough. A few more blasts were all that she needed in order to take down the few remaining drones. Once they were all destroyed, she charged her Power Beam and drew in the small, purple Energy Capsules. As she drew in the energy, her suit's readings showed the increase in energy levels, most notably in shield strength. Once she had finished taking all of the energy that had risen from the robots, replenishing one of her depleted Energy Tanks in the process, she proceeded on her way.

The next sector of the Ring seemed to house no defenses or security or military personnel to speak of, though there were numerous consoles that lined the area. Wondering if the consoles would make it easier to reach the main computer core, she went over to the nearest console and scanned it with her Scan Visor. The console screen immediately lit up and the data stored in the computer came to the screen. The data was titled,_ Lore –_ _Dreams of a New World_. She proceeded to read the screen. It read, _Nearly three years ago I, Cyrus, created an organization known as Team Galactic to fulfill my greatest desires, to destroy this universe of pain, emotion, and spirit, and replace it with a universe devoid of such flawed concepts. I came so close. I gained hold of Dialga and Palkia, but a group of Pokémon Trainers and Giratina stopped me and undid my plans. Two years later, I got my second chance. I had it, Dark Arceus was about to fulfill my desires, one way or the other, but Samus Aran and the Pokémon, Mewtwo, stopped me again. This time, I shall not fail. This time, with the might of the Galactic Federation behind me, Mewtwo gone, as well as going under the guise that I am trying to annihilate the Magic Lords once and for all, I shall finally create my own universe out of the ashes of this one!_

After the log was finished, Samus recorded it to her logbook. This would hopefully go a long way in mending the relationship between the people of Earth and the Galactic Federation. However, she could already hear many of the other races, especially those who lost a great number of people on Daiban and had their citizens turned away from Earth after it was discovered that Elric was using refugee ships, and even refugees themselves, to have Watchmen infiltrate Earth. She soon went over to another console and scanned it for data. The scan read, _Lore – Alliance with the N'Kren and Ylla: With Earth having seceded from the Galactic Federation, we have finally managed to convince two of the elder races, the N'Kren and Ylla, to join our cause in reunifying the Galactic Federation. While it is known that Earth has stated that should Cyrus leave and the corruption be expunged, that they would voluntarily rejoin the Galactic Federation, the fact of the matter is that those things will not happen. Since the N'Kren and Ylla have officially joined us to assist us in Cyrus's plans to eliminate the Magic Lords. Many have speculated that in order for the plan to be accomplished, that Earth would have to be sacrificed, and that if an evacuation were ordered, that it would alert the enemy, and it seems as if that is the case. But even the N'Kren and Ylla leadership that have joined us indicated that this is an acceptable sacrifice for the security of the galaxy._

Reading that log entry almost made Samus sick to her stomach. She had suspected that the N'Kren and Ylla had been lied to by Cyrus, heck, they actually _had_ been lied to. But for the leadership of both races, at least those leaders that were present here, to be willing to sacrifice a planet with six billion plus people on it was too far. Samus seethed and gave a short hiss. She had always heard from the Chozo, and even from U-Mos, that the N'Kren had a tremendous sense of honor and would keep their word no matter what, even at the risk of entire fleets or their own people. She wondered if the N'Kren soldier that she had spared and saved knew the truth. As for the Ylla, she still did not know all that much about them, personally, except that they were said to be a very caring group of people, and that it was likely Ylla technology that may have saved her parents. She had trouble believing that the entirety of either species would know about the sacrifice of Earth, even if their leaders did, and she wondered what the soldiers and military officers would do if this secret was ever exposed, especially given what she had heard about both of them.

Samus then went to scan the next console and download its data to her logbook. This console had more useful information on it, for it seemed to have data on the Techno Soldier program. Its scan read, _Lore – Techno Soldier program: The Techno Soldier program is the pride and joy of the N'Kren and Ylla species. Using technology from both races, a suit of armor is created that can summoned using a single watch-like device or crystal with a mere thought. The Techno Soldiers are ranked as follows, Techno Serf, Squire, Knight, Noble, Lord, and the Royalty class – Prince/Princess, and finally King/Queen. Cyrus has obtained at least a dozen Techno Soldiers of the Knight class and higher that were survivors of K-2L. Each Knight and above has access to highly powerful energy weapons that are on a par with light capital ship-grade weapons. In addition, the N'Kren field entire armies of Knights, which Nobles often lead, and even Nobles, which are led by Lords. The Royalty classes are the leaders of entire armies and are only summoned in extreme circumstances. While Techno Soldiers excel in ground combat, in more recent times, the N'Kren use them to supplement their starfighter forces and even use them as light energy cannons for use against enemy capital ships and starfighter and assault ship squadrons._

Samus looked up and moved on. There was nothing in that scan that really surprised her, save for the fact that the Federation had access to the knowledge that there were also Techno Kings and Techno Queens. Given what she knew about the Lords, she hoped that she would not be forced to engage any of the Royalty class of Techno Soldier.

She then went over to another console close by and scanned it, reading, _Lore – Bounty Hunters: One of our other diplomatic successes is the fact that we have managed to hire a large group of bounty hunters to guard our supply lines and track down enemy agents, while the Galactic Federation in Exile has only managed to snag a handful of the hunters, and of them, only Samus Aran is notable. Among our ranks of bounty hunters, we have acquired the services of Trace, Kanden, Noxus, Spire, Cylock, Marda, and even a newly restored Pigma Dengar, complete with his previous Arwing fighter. With these hunters, especially the likes of Kanden and Pigma, we should be able to take down any enemy hunter that opposes us._

Samus looked up from the console with a serious expression on her face. She had suspected that there were a large number of bounty hunters that were working for the Galactic Federation. She just did not expect there to be so many of them. Still, she knew that she could defeat them if push came to shove. She was not worried.

She soon went over to another console nor too far away and scanned it, just as she had with the others. The scan read, _Lore – Corneria Joins the Fight: Success! We have successfully convinced the Cornerian Army to join the war on the side of the Galactic Federation. While Corneria can only spare a few dozen ships at the moment, the greatest coup is the fact that General Peppy Hare has asked his old friend and former teammate, Fox McCloud, leader of the Star Fox Team to fight. Fox has agreed and the Great Fox II has come over, allowing the Star Fox Team to bring in their highly advanced starfighters, the Arwings, and their tanks, the Landmasters. They will instrumental in the upcoming Battle of Earth and subsequent battles in the atmosphere and on the ground._

Samus could only sigh at the fact that such a noble team like the Star Fox Team had been deceived by Cyrus into fighting for the destruction of Earth, at the very least, and likely the destruction of the universe. She hoped with all of her heart that the Star Fox Team, and Peppy, knew nothing of Cyrus's true motives.

She then went over to another console and scanned it. The scan read, _Lore – The Conquest of Earth: The battle is over, the conquest is complete. Over nine thousand ships, three waves of three thousand ships, crashed into the defenses of the Earth and managed to overcome them. In addition, we inflicted heavy losses to the enemy defenses, destroying twenty of the Heavy Defense Platforms, and many of the smaller platforms and turrets. Through the use of the black hole dreadnaughts used by both the N'Kren and Ylla, we were able to penetrate Earth's planetary shield and open the way for our troops to land on the planet, though it is unfortunate that we lost the four black hole dreadnaughts used during the battle to the fire of several Chozo and Luminoth cruisers and battleships. Despite that setback, we still managed to land troops on Earth and take control of the Capitol Building in Washington D.C., allowing us to take control of the surviving Heavy Defense Platforms and the planet's planetary shields, as well as the Radio Tower, which allowed us to jam the Federation in Exile and Earth's communications. Still, the cost was staggering. We lost more than half of our fleet in the attack and while we destroyed much of the Earth Defense Fleet, itself, many of its stronger ships were able to evacuate and get to safety. Still, the battle is won. We have orbital superiority and are landing millions of troops on Earth as this entry is being written. Upon the completion of Cyrus's work, the war will be over forever!_

Samus looked over the report on the first Battle of Earth and said a silent prayer for those who were lost in the fighting on both sides. She had a feeling that the second Battle of Earth would be even worse.

She soon spied a pair of consoles near the end of this sector of the corridor, which was close to a teleporter. She went over to the closest console and scanned it, reading, _Lore – Dangerous enemies: Despite the conquest of Earth, the war is not yet over. There are still many enemies that still have to be dealt with before final victory can be achieved. Earth has moved many of its troops to Japan, particularly the Sinnoh and Johto Regions, as well as the Unova Region of the United States of America. Cyrus believes that there is something special in either Sinnoh or Johto that will be instrumental in accomplishing the destruction of the Magic Lords, and possibly result in the destruction of Earth. So far, the World Pokémon League leaders, Cynthia and Lance, have organized a resistance movement on Earth consisting of not only of Pokémon Trainers, but of ordinary civilians as well. In addition, there are other issues that have come up. The Star Wolf Team, the mortal enemies of the Star Fox Team, has joined the fight on the side of the Galactic Federation in Exile, and are harassing our supply lines. All battles between Star Wolf and Star Fox are currently ending either in stalemates, or Star Wolf victories, which is unusual since Star Fox usually has the upper hand on them given their numerical superiority and the superior maneuverability of the Arwings compared to the Wolfens, as well as the experience in fighting previous battles against the Star Wolf Team. That only leaves Samus Aran, who has been a nuisance in many battles, such as the Battles of Aether and Corella 5. However, she has yet to appear near Earth, though we are expecting her to be utilized quite soon. In addition, we have placed a three million gold credit bounty on her head, dead! If she appears, we are certain that she will be terminated with extreme prejudice._

Samus could only grin at that last statement. She had already arrived, and had destroyed seven of the eight Orbital Rings. She was eager to make it eight of eight. She then scanned the second console and found that it activated the teleporter. Her eyes went wide with surprise and delight when she found that the teleporter took her to a secret room adjacent to the main computer's control room. After activating the teleporter, she then stepped onto the pad and vanished. However, little did she know, that after she had vanished, the pad lit up and glowed brightly once more, and then died, indicating that someone else had used it to follow her.

She reappeared in a dark room surrounded by metal walls. She stepped forward towards the door. Despite the darkness, she was able to see perfectly due to her Combat Visor's ability to pick up on even the faintest of light and illuminate it so that it would be clear for Samus. She soon reached the door leading out of the teleportation chamber. The door opened as she approached and she walked on through. The door closed before a second flash was seen from the teleportation pad.

Inside the main computer's control room, Samus scanned the surroundings for any sign of defense turrets, security robots, or security personnel. She found none, which surprised her, especially since she had been systematically destroying the Orbital Rings in rapid succession. Seeing no signs of defenses, she hurried over to the main computer, eager to finish this part of the mission and begin on the second phase. She activated her Scan Visor and went to hack the computer. When she did so, though, a red circle with an angular line going through it appeared on the screen. The computer's voice then blared, "Self-destruct protocols deleted."

Samus grimaced. It seems as if someone had there had been additional security protocols set in place here. She was surprised that all of the self-destruct protocols had been outright deleted. She then used her Scan Visor to try to ascertain when the protocols had been deleted. The data soon came up on the screen and, much as she had suspected, it had been done relatively recently, within the last hour. She then directly interfaced with the console itself, and told it to mark the locations of each of the reactors on the Ring. Fortunately, the computer had not been prevented from giving her this information. A map of the Orbital Ring then appeared on the console screen and marked the locations of the reactors in red. They were evenly distributed throughout the entire Ring. She then brought up the schematics for each of the reactors and found that if she managed to destroy eight reactors that were evenly spaced throughout the ring, that she would be able to destroy the entire ring. She did not know whether or not the safety protocols from the normal self-destruct sequence would activate and send away the larger pieces of the Ring from Earth, but she knew that enough of the Ring would be destroyed that the shield over the Earth would fall.

She then brought up more information on the Ring on the screen. She found that she was relatively close to the brig. The computer also indicated that this was the only brig onboard any of the Orbital Rings. Curious to see who was being confined here, she brought up the list of prisoners. She was shocked to find that President Jonathan Richardson was one of the prisoners, as was General William Hastings, his Chairman of the Earth's Joint Chiefs of Staff. She was also shocked to find out that Captain Falcon, a famous F-Zero racer and bounty hunter who had recently made a big name for himself fighting in support of the Galactic Federation in Exile, was also confined here. She would have expected them to have already been executed had they been captured. She did not dwell on it and, instead, had the location of the penitentiary downloaded to her map of the Ring. Once the download was made, she was about to see what types of defenses could be expected when a red beam of energy lanced through the console millimeters away from her left hand. She turned around to see who it was that had fired on her, but she could find no one. She did not like the looks of this, so she quickly dove to her right and activated her X-Ray Visor.

Sure enough, just as she had moved, another red beam was emitted from ten meters or so in front of her, missing her head by a millimeter and scoring another hit on the computer, destroying it. Her X-Ray Visor identified the enemy as a Kriken, an insectoid enemy with an exoskeleton, a floating head with a single eye, arms that had no fingers. Had she been viewing him without the X-Ray Visor, she would have seen that his body was entirely red. Given the fact that the Kriken had fired a red laser towards her, Samus surmised that the Kriken that she was facing was none other than Trace, a bounty hunter she had encountered in the Alimbic Cluster years ago. This was confirmed when the Kriken hissed, "Finally, Hunter, I shall avenge my lossss in the Alimbic Clussster."

Samus said nothing in response to the Kriken. She did not know if he was working for Cyrus, or merely using him so as to find her, and she did not care. Still, she had a feeling, given his statement, that he had been searching for her for quite some time. Still, she knew that the Kriken Empire was at war with the Galactic Federation, and she figured that Trace had figured out that there was a reason that Cyrus was hated by the people of Earth. If Earth had been weakened greatly enough, then the Krikens could come in and conquer the planet. After all, it was likely that the rest of the Federation would not lift a finger to help the people of Earth, especially now.

Trace then took aim at Samus and opened fire a third time. Samus was already on the move, having curled up into Morph Ball form and charging towards the Kriken at full speed, noting that he appeared to be stronger and more versatile, being able to maintain his invisibility while in his bipedal form and while still being mobile. She struck the insectoid alien and proceeded to lay down a series of Morph Ball Bombs. Each bomb was not all that strong, in and of itself, but when hit with several bombs, the damage added up. Trace quickly backed away and tried to fire his Imperialist at the enemy bounty hunter, only to drill a hole into the floor a few feet away from the hunter. Samus then charged him again with her Boost Ball and barreled into him, inflicting more damage to the Kriken. Immediately upon hitting him, she laid down a Power Bomb and rolled away. The Kriken backed off from Samus, only for the Power Bomb to detonate and engulf him in the massive field of destructive energy.

Trace quickly fled from the center of the blast, but he could still feel himself taking incredible damage. He decloaked and appeared before Samus, who switched back to her normal Combat Visor after transforming back to normal and charged a Super Missile. As Trace emerged from the center of the Power Bomb blast, his body was smoking and burnt, but he was still alive and ready to fight. However, Samus gave him no time to launch attack, letting loose with a Super Missile. The missile streaked towards Trace, who was too slow to evade the powerful explosive. The explosive struck the Kriken in the chest, forcing him backwards. Samus then scanned Trace and his life bar came up on her HUD, the little quarter bar that was left.

Trace, seeing that a ranged battle was not going his way at all, quickly transformed into his alternative form, the Triskelion, a three-legged form that allowed him to lunge towards his targets quickly and strike them with his arms, inflicting severe damage to his opponents. Unfortunately, Samus was still faster than he was, and backed away while switching to her Wave Beam and charging her Wavebuster, wanting to end this fight quickly. Once the Wavebuster was charged, she unleashed a vicious stream of lightning upon the Kriken. The Kriken writhed, hissed, and gave a screech of pain as he was bombarded by the lightning. He had taken Shock Coil attacks from Sylux before, but the assault from the Wavebuster was far worse. Samus looked at his life bar decrease at an increased rate until it was eventually drained in its entirety. As soon as it was drained, Trace fell to the ground and writhed for a few moments before becoming still, sporadic throes being the only movement left in his body. Scanning the Kriken, she found that he was dead.

As soon as Trace had died, Samus took stock of herself. Trace had not managed to score a hit on her, but she had used a number of missiles, but found that she still had two hundred and thirty missiles left, more than enough to deal with any threat that she would likely face up ahead. With that, Samus exited the control room and followed the map headed towards Orbital Ring Eight's penitentiary so as to free the captured allied leaders, Captain Falcon, and the Galactic Federation in Exile Marines that had been captured during the war.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10:

Samus made her way down the corridor and followed her map to the penitentiary. Along the way, she encountered a dozen more Air Defense Drones which were armed with missiles, likely of the anti-personnel fragmentation variety. Not wanting to give the robots a chance to fire their missiles, Samus shot the robots from twenty meters away with her Power Beam. Orange blasts of energy erupted from her cannon and instantly struck the Air Defense Drones, shattering them with single blasts. In less than six seconds, she had cleared the area and moved forward, leaving nothing but small pieces of metal in her wake. As she moved on, she encountered more defenses that consisted of Missile Security Robots, and even some bipedal humanoid defense robots. She proceeded to scan the humanoid defense robots, her scan reading, _Morphology – Security Android Trooper (SAT). This security robot is bipedal, and highly modular, allowing it to be outfitted with a wide variety of weaponry and defenses. This versatility makes it a popular supplemental tool for the Galactic Federation Army, Marines, and security forces throughout the Federation._

After finishing the scan, Samus looked at each of the robots and found that they were armed with arm cannons of some sort, likely a knock off of her own arm cannon. She surmised that they were likely armed with variants of her own beam weaponry. This belief was confirmed when the robots leveled their arm cannons on her and opened fire. Green plasma beams that looked like helixes and waves erupted from their arm cannons, indicating that they were using the stacked beam weapon system that she had used on her Fusion Suit and during both her Zero Mission on Zebes, and her return mission to said planet. She quickly dodged to one side, managing to avoid the initial enemy fire, which was slower than the beam weaponry of her current arm cannon. She returned fire with her own Plasma Beam which, while not having the phasing nature of the Wave Beam utilized by the stacked beams of the robots, had significantly more raw power. The SATs were felled with little more than single blasts, the metallic security robots clattering on the ground as they hit. Next came the Missile Security Robots, and they did not last any longer than the SATs. Single Plasma Beam blasts were more than sufficient to blow them apart, leaving nothing more than smoking treads upon their destruction.

She made her way past the scene and closely followed the yellow line laid out on her map. As she continued, her threat sensors indicated that danger was approaching when red lines appeared on the upper border of her HUD. She stopped and took cover behind a small wall outcropping. She peered from around the outcropping and saw two figures Federation Army Troopers approaching. She could hear their muffled voices echoing from their helmets as they approached and she managed to get a glimpse of them. They seemed to only have the standard loadout of their projectile assault rifles and freeze guns. She quickly ducked back behind the outcropping and listened to their conversation. "Man, this posting suddenly stinks," the first trooper whined.

"Quit your whinin', Grayson," the second trooper scolded. "You should be thrilled that we weren't stationed on Earth in New York or on the assault force that's gonna capture Japan."

"I was, until the other Orbital Rings started to explode one by one. They say that Samus is on this Ring. If that's true, then we're dead. Every station she steps on winds up getting' blown to hell."

"Not all of them," the second trooper corrected. "There was an Alimbic station that didn't explode after she stepped onto it. And it's not like she's any better with planets."

"Yeah she is," the first trooper countered. "Earth, Z-1A, Aether, and Tallon Four haven't exploded yet. Plus, there have been other planets that she's landed on that haven't blown up that I don't know the names of. But on stations, she's death. Want proof? Look at what happened to Orbital Rings One through Seven. It's only a matter of time before this Ring goes, too."

Samus could barely suppress a laugh as she listened to the troopers' conversation. A part of her smiled with pride at the fear that the first trooper had of her whenever she stepped onboard a space station. She could not help but notice that he was, in essence, correct. Every station that she had ever set foot on, save for an outpost in the Alimbic Cluster, had eventually been destroyed. _Research Facility 777_, _Space Lab Moreau_, _Biologic Space Labs Research Station_, the Orbital Rings; the list went on. Her mind then switched back to the mission at hand. She peered around the metal outcropping and saw that the two soldiers had turned away. She ducked back around and switched to her Ice Beam. Once she had done so, she emerged from behind the metal outcropping and fired two uncharged blasts at the unsuspecting troopers. They did not know what hit them as they were frozen solid. The bounty hunter rushed past the two frozen troopers and ran down the corridor before they managed to defrost, their armor managing to keep them alive. By the time they had thawed, she was long gone.

Samus soon entered another sector of the Ring and found herself looking at a gauntlet of Halberd-class defense turrets. She immediately jumped into the air and performed a Screw Attack, floating in the air down the corridor. While this slowed down her movement, she was practically invulnerable to the massively powerful turrets that were zeroing in on her. Any turrets that were in her flight path were instantly annihilated. The other beams that managed to hit her merely bounced off of her Screw Attack shield. After thirty seconds, she had made her way past the gauntlet and was out of range of the turrets.

Once she cleared the gauntlet of defense turrets, she found herself much closer to the penitentiary. Checking her map, she was only a few dozen meters away. She saw a large window to her right and went over to take a look out into space. She looked out and to her left and found a large metallic structure jutting out from the main superstructure of the Ring. She figured that that was the prison. Wasting no time, she proceeded towards the prison when she came face to face with two old adversaries standing outside the set of doors that led to the penitentiary. She recognized the bounty hunters from her last encounter with them in the Alimbic Cluster. They were Noxus and Spire.

Noxus was a Vhozon, a blue-skinned bipedal being with long, thin, multi-jointed legs, and thicker arms with a head that looked like it was covered by a helmet, despite it being his real head. His primary weapon was the Judicator, an Ice Beam-like weapon that when charged, sprayed at short range like buckshot fired from a shotgun. It could even freeze opponents. Uncharged shots could ricochet off of walls to hit its target should he not have a clear line of sight against his opponent. His alternate form was called the Vhoscythe. She remembered that it was performed when Vhozon pulled in their arms and legs and spun around in a top-like manner. In fact, they looked like spinning tops in their Vhoscythe forms. For offense, a long, scythe-like appendage could be extended to attack or defend against enemies. She remembered that Noxus was one of the two bounty hunters that had not sought the "ultimate power" in the Alimbic Cluster for evil purposes. His purpose was to keep it out of the hands of evildoers. The other one who sought the power for other than evil purposes, besides herself, was the bounty hunter standing next to him: Spire.

Spire was a Diamont, a silicon-based lifeform that was incredibly strong and made of a silicon-based rock. His body looked like it was covered with rock, and had yellow glowing magma-like structures protruding from it like spikes. His left hand also had a ball of energy over it. His primary weapon was called the Magmaul, a grenade launcher that launched magma-like grenades that bounced along surfaces and walls and exploded after three seconds. When charged, it could fire a much larger projectile with a large blast/splash radius and could set targets on fire should they be hit by said weapon. His alternate form was called the Dialanche. To use it, Spire transforms into a spiked ball that can roll up walls and travel through lava without suffering any damage. For defense, the Dialanche can produce two rock "arms" that detach from the ball and orbit it, inflicting tremendous damage to whatever they touch. However, their range was quite limited, and as such, the Dialanche was more of a defensive alternate form, however, if Spire were able to trap an opponent against a wall, he could quickly tear into them with his Dialanche. When she had encountered him in the Alimbic Cluster, he had been searching for the "ultimate power" to aid him in the search for the fate and/or location of the rest of his people. Unlike many other bounty hunters, he, like Noxus and Samus, only took just missions. To see him working for Cyrus was quite saddening, especially when several other heroes, such as the Star Fox Team, were working with that criminal. Both of the bounty hunters took aim at Samus and charged their respective weapons.

"Lower your arm cannon and surrender at once," Noxus commanded. Spire merely stood by; ready to support his comrade. "If you do not surrender, we are authorized to use deadly force in order to stop you," he continued.

"You don't have to do this," she pleaded with them, trying to get them to stand down. "You know that I, like you, fight for justice. If Cyrus is successful in accomplishing his goals, at the very least, Earth will be destroyed. That will doom six billion plus people to their deaths." She then stared directly at Noxus. "Does that sound like justice to you?"

"Earth defected from the Galactic Federation," Spire countered. "It was once one of its most loyal members, but when the refugees of Daiban sought sanctuary on it, they were turned away."

"Only _after_ it was discovered that Elric was using the refugee ships to smuggle Watchmen to Earth," Samus countered. "Before the deception was discovered, Earth had kept its doors wide open. Even after it was discovered that Elric was using the refugee ships to smuggle his agents to Earth, it still kept its colony and resource worlds open to refugees and settlers. Even the Jovian moons and Titan were open to refugees."

"That is of no consequence anymore," Noxus stated flatly. "Earth got what it wanted. It has a human as the leader of the Galactic Federation…"

"A known criminal," Samus countered again. "I wonder what your highly touted sense of spiritualism and justice is saying right now."

This cut to Noxus's heart. He seethed and hissed, "Enough talk, Samus. Now we fight."

With that, the Vhozon opened fire on Samus with his Judicator. A wall of ice erupted from his arm cannon mounted on his right arm and streaked towards Samus. Samus immediately leapt into a Screw Attack and the wall of ice splashed harmlessly against her shield. At the same time Noxus opened fire, Spire did so as well. A large plasma grenade-like blast of magma erupted from his Magmaul and splashed harmlessly against Samus's Screw Attack shield. She then somersaulted towards Noxus, forcing him to dive out of the way of her rush, to the right. As soon as she overshot her target, she immediately uncurled herself and immediately extended her Grapple Lasso from her left arm towards Noxus. The purple beam lashed out at the enemy bounty hunter and managed to make contact with him. Spire took this opportunity to try to attack Samus again, but she managed to jump out of the way of his magma grenades, which detonated beneath her feet. She switched to her Ice Beam and charged it as Spire fired another shot, which managed to score a direct hit on her suit. Her shields flared and she saw thirty units of energy vanish from her current Energy Tank. She then began to activate her Grapple Voltage and drain energy from Noxus, turning her beam blue, replenishing her own in the process, while she charged her Ice Beam and prepared to fire an Ice Spreader against Spire. Once the Ice Beam was charged, she unleashed her Ice Spreader from her Arm Cannon. The massive blast of ice shot towards Spire at a much higher speed than she had remembered and Spire was unable to avoid the blast. The expanding blast of ice struck the Diamont squarely in the chest and detonated. Ice expanded across Spire's chest out towards his limbs until he was completely encased in ice. Samus checked Spire's life bar and found that had lost a third of his health in that single Ice Spreader blast, and continued to lose more for every second he was frozen.

Noxus's eyes went wide at the fact that Spire had lost almost a third of his health in one attack, and was continuing to lose health at an alarming rate. However, there was little the Vhozon could do for his comrade, save for attacking Samus with his Judicator. He charged his Judicator and then unleashed a wall of energy towards Samus, hoping to freeze her solid or, at least, force her far enough away from him so that her Grapple Voltage's connection to him would be terminated. She sidestepped his short-ranged ice wall and let it sail off into the distance and dissipate ten meters away. Her sidestep was not enough to disconnect her Grapple Voltage, though, and she continued to drain Noxus of his energy. He glanced at his own HUD and found that she had drained almost half of his health, and the drain was not slowing. Seeing little choice, he simply targeted Samus with his Judicator and fired uncharged shots at her head. Unlike her previous suit's defenses at the time of her mission to the Alimbic Cluster, though, the defenses around the head of her current suit were just as strong as the defenses around the rest of the suit. In addition, for each hit that he inflicted on Samus, she merely recovered the health by draining it from his suit. And he was unable to inflict more damage with his weapons per shot than she was able to recover from draining his own health.

Samus used this chance to concentrate on the thawing Spire. The ice around the Diamont bounty hunter was beginning to crack and thaw, drops of water were already falling from the main ice form and steam was rising. However, Samus would not give him a chance to do so as she charged her Ice Beam again and let loose a Charged Ice Beam shot. The ball of ice streaked towards the already frozen hunter and struck him, reforming the ice prison and reinforcing the ice sheet that was already over his body. The Ice Beam drained the equivalent of almost two thirds of a whole Energy Tank from Spire, and the freezing ice surrounding his body continued to drain health, as if Spire were trapped in a freezing environment without any protection to speak of. While he was frozen, there was nothing he could to do attack Samus, or help out Noxus, who was having enough trouble against Samus as it was.

She then refocused on Spire, who was doing his best to break the connection between Samus's Grapple Voltage and himself. He ran away from Samus as quickly as possible, firing Judicator blasts towards the hunter, who did little to avoid them except for when he had charged them. Samus easily kept up with her quarry and continued to drain him of his energy. Noxus was getting desperate now and decided that it was time to break out his missiles. Unlike Samus's missiles, his missiles did not have homing capabilities and were completely dumb fired. He unleashed a missile against her and the impact immediately forced her backwards, taking off ten units of energy from her suit. This attack was sufficient to allow Noxus to flee far enough for him to break himself away from Samus's Grapple Voltage. Unfortunately, he had lost more than three quarters of his energy, and Samus had locked onto him and was charging a Super Missile. She fired her missile at Noxus, who was still recovering from having his energy drained and, thus, did not see the Super Missile approaching. By the time he saw the missile, it was already too late for him to dodge and he was forced to take the full brunt of the attack, which knocked him backwards and knocked off more of his health. Noxus landed a few feet away from his launch point and fell in a heap. While he was getting back to his feet, Samus charged another Ice Spreader blast and unleashed it at a thawing Spire. The Ice Spreader blast struck Spire and refroze the Diamont rock solid once more. Samus checked his life bar and found that it was now down to less than one quarter of his original health. She suspected that if the ice did not take him out of the fight before he thawed, then her Grapple Voltage could finish him.

Turning back to Noxus, she raced after him and fired a normal missile at him. The missile streaked after the Vhozon and struck him in the back as he was returning fire towards Samus with his own missiles. The missile blast knocked him off his feet, forcing him to transform into his Vhoscythe form and try to speed away from her. However, Samus had closed the distance and fired a purple beam from her Grapple Voltage. Her beam managed to latch onto Noxus's Vhoscythe form and she began draining the remaining energy from him. Since he had nothing left to lose, Noxus charged towards Samus and attempted to extend his scythe-like appendages and launch an attack, but before he arrived, the last of his energy was drained from him and he immediately transformed back to normal and collapsed onto the ground, unconscious.

Samus immediately disengaged her Grapple Voltage from the fallen bounty hunter and turned back toward Spire, whose life bar was at critical levels. She noticed the ice beginning to crack and thaw around his body. She approached him and eventually, the ice shattered. Once it did, the Diamont merely stood there, panting but not raising his arm towards her at all. Spire then fell onto the ground and lay there, his threat neutralized. Samus then went over to him and proceeded to grab the Diamont and drag him over to the nearest escape pod. When she arrived, she opened the door and shoved the unconscious Spire into the pod. Once she was done, she went over to Noxus and dragged him over to the escape pod as well. Once she had pushed him into the pod, she closed the hatch and pushed the _eject_ button. The escape pod was then ejected into space and rocketed away from the Orbital Ring and the Earth.

Once she had dealt with the two bounty hunters, she proceeded to make her way towards the penitentiary. She approached the door but it did not open. She looked over at a small keypad and retinal scanner to the right of the door and immediately activated her Scan Visor. Scanning the controls, her visor was able to hack into the computer and the door proceeded to open.

Upon entering, she encountered a long line of cells that lined a corridor wall behind a small room with several consoles. Two of the consoles were occupied and upon sighting Samus, the occupants rose to face her. One, a male was a Simian, while the second was a Star Elf female. She instantly recognized the two who rose to meet her, for they were bounty hunters, like her self. The Simian male with brown hair and dark skin that stood at over seven feet in height and was heavily muscled was Cylock, a notorious bounty hunter that was known for killing his quarry as soon as bringing them in. The female Star Elf with blond hair and blue eyes was named Marda. She looked like a taller, thinner version of Samus save for her two pointed ears. She, unlike Cylock, was not known for her ruthlessness, but was more known for her ability to seduce information out of males, making her perfect for espionage missions. Cylock was clad in a large suit of armor with only his head being revealed, while Marda was dressed in much lighter clothing, leaving her arms much of her legs bare. Despite the lack of clothing, Samus suspected that she was wearing a personal shield generator of some sort. She tested that theory by scanning Marda. Much to her surprise, the scan read, _Morphology – Marda. Subject is a Star Elf that hails from the planet Midewan. Marda is a well-known bounty hunter that often seeks jobs that involve espionage and the search for, and capture of, other fugitives, rather than fighting large armies. Subject is currently armed with an energy pistol and Lightning Sword. Subject is wearing light clothing that is more useful for the seduction of males than for combat._

_Yeah, I got that_, Samus thought when she read the scan. Still, she was surprised that Marda was not dressed for combat and that she did not at least have a personal shield generator. She then scanned Cylock to see if he was hiding any weaponry that was not already visible. His scan came back, _Morphology – Cylock. Subject is a Simian that hails from the planet Jamoru. Cylock is known for taking difficult and dirty jobs where he will be forced to face off against multiple opponents. Subject is wearing a powerful suit of battle armor that, while is armored heavily, lacks any type of defensive shield. Subject's weapons consist of a plasma cannon and energy rifle._

Samus had expected him to have heavier weaponry. She had heard of these bounty hunters before but had never had the opportunity to meet them until now. The two bounty hunters approached her and Cylock spoke first, ordering, "Surrender now or die, Samus. We have authorization to terminate you on sight."

Marda then spoke with a smile, saying, "It's two-on-one, Sammy. If you're smart, you'll…" but she never got a chance to finish her sentence, for Samus immediately fired an uncharged Wave Beam blast at her. The trio of undulating pulses struck her in the chest and electricity sparked across her body as she fell to the floor, crying out with the hit writhing in pain as she fell. With merely one shot, she was out of the fight. Samus instinctively moved to her left as a purple plasma pulse sailed by her head, missing her by scant inches. She focused on Cylock and charged her Wave Beam. He managed to get one more shot off from his plasma cannon, which missed Samus, before Samus returned fire with her charged Wave Beam. The blast struck Cylock in the chest and lightning arced across his armor and body. He gave a shout as his armor shut down and lightning arced across his body, and he fell down to the ground, at the very least unconscious, possibly worse.

Once the two bounty hunters were out of the picture, Samus went over to one of the consoles and hacked it with her Scan Visor. Once the computers were hacked, she managed to get information on all of the prisoners that were confined onboard Orbital Ring Eight. She had known from the Ring's main computer that Earth President Jonathan Richardson, General William Hastings, and Captain Douglas Jay Falcon were confined here, but she was surprised to find a large number of prisoners of war and political prisoners who were opposed to Cyrus's rule also being confined in this ring as well. She then checked to see if there were any prisoners that actually deserved to remain in confinement, for she did not want to release any known murderers. As she had expected, there were none. Once she had finished going over the list of prisoners, she proceeded to unlock all of the cells.

Once she unlocked all of the cells, she went over to the fallen bounty hunters and gathered their weapons. She noticed that the sword worn by Marda was a lightning sword. She was glad; for she knew that the freed prisoners would need every weapon they could get their hands on. She then went over to Cylock's armor and disconnected the plasma cannon from the armor's socket. She activated it to make sure that it still worked. Once it turned on, she fired a blast in order to make sure that it was undamaged. A blast of purple plasma erupted from the cannon and gouged a massive hole in the wall a few meters away. She smiled. The cannon was functioning perfectly. Before leaving, though, she gathered the bounty hunters' communicators as well and deactivated them. Once she had gathered the weapons and other important items from the fallen bounty hunters, she made her way down the corridor as the prisoners were walking out of the corridor and beginning to make their break for freedom.

Samus quickly spied Jonathan Richardson, a forty year old man that stood at about six feet in height with brown hair and green eyes; William Hastings, tall a man of about fifty-five years old with graying dark brown hair and blue eyes; and Captain Falcon a tall man that wore a form-fitting uniform that had his head and eyes covered with a helmet and visor, coming towards her, along with thirty-six other prisoners, all of them human. She was surprised that the prisoners were allowed to wear civilian style clothing, along with Falcon being allowed to keep his uniform, blue pants, blue formfitting armor, and a red helmet with a golden falcon symbol emblazoned on it. As the prisoners approached, she handed the first four prisoners weapons. She handed Captain Falcon an energy pistol, a burly looking Caucasian male the plasma cannon, President Richardson the energy rifle, and General Hastings the Lightning Sword. They then ushered the rest of the escaped prisoners into the room.

Once everyone was assembled, Samus went over to a console and brought up a hologram of the map of Orbital Ring Eight. Everyone stared at the image, for there were several locations that were marked on the map. The location that got the most interest from the party was an armory that was located a mere twenty meters away from the prison. "That's our first stop," President Richardson said for everyone there. The other prisoners nodded. "If we're going to escape from this place, we'll need appropriate arms and armor."

"I'll lead the way," Samus volunteered.

Jonathan Richardson then directed, "Captain Falcon, you, Lieutenant O'Brien, and General Hastings are with me. We'll be fighting alongside Samus on the way to the armory. General Hastings, you're on rearguard for our little group, though. You've got the sword, which is not the best weapon for ranged combat, but it's better than nothing. If you see anything, give us a call and we'll come help."

"Understood, Mr. President," the general replied.

Before leaving, though, Samus did one last thing. She ushered the prisoners away from the consoles and proceeded to fire on them, disabling each of the consoles, shorting out their circuits and rendering them unusable. Once that was finished, she led the way out of the penitentiary, followed by President Jonathan Richardson along with Lieutenant O'Brien, then Captain Falcon and General William Hastings.

Once they reached the corridor, the group immediately ran into a dozen Galactic Federation Army Troopers, along with a few Galactic Federation Marines. President Richardson went over to Samus and told her, "These troopers are conscripts and former prisoners that were scheduled to be executed. They consist of known murderers, rapists, mob hitmen, etcetera."

Samus suppressed a grin. Finally, she could cut loose against a group of "Army" and "Marines" without killing anyone who was good. She did not bother to use her Wave Beam or Ice Beam and immediately switched to her Plasma Beam. She opened fire on the Marines first, felling them in two and three uncharged shots, while President Richardson, Captain Falcon, and Lieutenant O'Brien focused on the Army Troopers. The Army Troopers fired towards the escapees but were unable to find their mark as the escapees took cover behind Samus and various outcroppings from the wall. Richardson, Captain Falcon, and O'Brien opened fire on the troopers and tore them to shreds. Within seconds, the battle was over. When the battle was over, they used hand signals to indicate that the path was clear. Before moving on, though, the escapees poured over the corpses of the fallen Army Troopers and Marines and took their weapons. Once sixteen of the escapees were armed, they joined Samus, President Richardson, and General Hastings up front and proceeded down the corridor.

After traveling a few dozen yards, the group encountered two Air Defense Drones. The drones were promptly drowned with energy fire from Samus, President Richardson, and Captain Falcon. After dealing with the drones, they continued down the corridor where they encountered some Security Android Troopers that were equipped with arm cannons. The SATs opened fire on the escapees, but failed to hit any because the escapees, who were trained Galactic Federation Marines and Army Troopers, quickly dove behind cover, and returned fire. The metallic bodies of the SATs made them more resistant to the energy-sheathed bullets fired from the assault rifles that had been plundered from the Galactic Federation Army Troopers that had fallen to Samus and the others, but Samus's Plasma Beam and the energy weapons that had been taken were more than sufficient to breach their chassis. The robots fell amid the hail of energy fire and bullets without managing to fell a single prisoner. Once the shootout had ended, they continued on their way, unable to make use of the arm cannons that had been integrated into the SATs.

The group continued to make its way down the corridor until they came across a soldier that looked to be some class of Techno Soldier and froze. Samus looked forward at the soldier and called to everyone else, "Stay back! I'll handle this!"

"Do it," Captain Falcon called reiterated. "These things are tough," he warned, remembering his own encounter with Techno Soldiers one year ago. His strongest punch had not even fazed a Techno Lord. The others followed the advice of Samus and Captain Falcon and retreated back around the corner. The armed prisoners, the President, General Hastings, and Captain Falcon covered the unarmed prisoners and made certain to be on the lookout for any reinforcements that the Techno Soldier might have brought with him.

A little further down the corridor, Samus and the Techno Soldier stared at each other. The bounty hunter could not help but notice that the Techno Soldier seemed to have much lighter armor than the Techno Knight that she had faced earlier, and only two shoulder-mounted cannons with no energy projectors on its chest. However, the Techno Soldier also carried a staff, rather than the short sword and dagger that the dossiers on the Techno Serf and Techno Squire said they used. She activated her Scan Visor and the scan soon showed up on her HUD, reading, _Morphology – Techno Serf. Techno Serfs are the lowest ranking, and most numerous, of the Techno Soldiers. Armed with only a single close combat weapon and two shoulder heavy plasma cannons, these soldiers are nowhere near as strong as their more powerful brethren. However, their lighter armor and smaller weaponry makes them more mobile and able to utilize cover in an urban environment. Serfs still have the same vulnerabilities to the Wave Beam and Screw Attack that their superiors possess_.

Hope came to Samus as she realized that this was the weakest of the Techno Soldiers and, while the Serfs were undoubtedly still powerful, her fears that the fight would threaten the escaped prisoners was lessening. Unfortunately, her scan did not reveal what lifeform was inside the armor. She did not know whether or not she had to be careful not to harm the occupant, or if she could afford to go all out in taking him down. The Techno Soldier soon made up her mind for her as he took aim with his staff and pointed one of its blades at her. The blade of the staff glowed and Samus took that as her cue to go evasive. The staff then unleashed a blast of pulsating blue energy. The Serf's aim was off and the staff's blast missed the bounty hunter by at least a few feet. Samus returned fire with her Wave Beam and fired a volley of uncharged blasts at the Techno Serf. The blasts struck the armor and spread out in arcs of lightning upon impact. Scanning the life bar of her opponent on her HUD, though, she found that the Techno Serf had suffered no damage at all. She had not expected it to. She then began charging her Wave Beam as the Techno Serf began opening fire with his shoulder-mounted plasma cannons. She ran towards a metal outcropping and dove behind it as the first of the plasma blasts was being fired. The first few blasts missed Samus and sailed past her, gouging holes in the floor several meters in diameter, and blowing out the floor, revealing the deck below. One blast, however, managed to connect with Samus and sent her sailing through the air. However, she noticed that only ninety units of energy were lost from the blast, indicating that the cannons were far weaker than the blasts from a Techno Knight. Still, she could not afford to take too many direct hits from the plasma cannons of the Techno Serf. She then rose and fired her charged Wave Beam at the Techno Serf. The blast struck the Serf in the chest and electricity played across his armor. Checking the Serf's life bar, she found that only about a tenth of the life bar had been drained by her Wave Beam blast. She knew that she would need to do more damage in a big hurry, for the blasts of the Serf were still quite capable of damaging the entire area and if there was a hull breach, if the emergency force fields were offline, it could spell disaster for the escapees.

Samus quickly considered her options for dealing with the Techno Serf. Option one was to use a Power Bomb to destroy the armor. That carried the risk of hurting the other escapees that were hiding not too far away from the fighting. Option two was to try the Screw Attack. While that would be able to inflict damage, she did not know how long it would take, and she had hoped to already be on Earth's surface at the moment given how quickly she had managed to destroy Orbital Rings One through Seven. Thinking about her strategy, there _was_ a third option that could prove to be quite damaging to the Techno Serf, but a lot of things had to go right.

She began by turning and calling back to the others, "Retreat down the corridor!"

Captain Falcon, President Richardson, and General Hastings each realized what she was likely going to try when she called back to them and they called back to the others, "Get back! We have to give her as much room as possible!"

The other prisoners obeyed them and began to run. While they were retreating, Samus avoided another blast from the Serf's staff. She retaliated with a Charged Wave Beam blast that scored a direct hit on the Techno Serf. Another tenth of the Serf's life bar was depleted, but it was not enough for Samus. She then decided to flee the Serf and ran down the corridor as quickly as she could until she activated her Speed Booster. The Serf had no idea what she was planning and decided that it would be best to wait and see what her plan was, rather than chase her down and take advantage of the fact that she was retreating. Once her Speed Booster had activated, she quickly skidded to a halt and turned around. Seeing that the Serf was not pursuing her, she charged back towards him. Her charge caught the Serf off guard and he began firing wildly at her with his shoulder-mounted plasma cannons and staff. None of the energy blasts managed to connect with Samus, though, and she managed to activate her Speed Booster before the Serf could evade her. A field of energy then surrounded the bounty hunter and she then skidded to a halt. After skidding to the halt, she lunged forward and propelled herself at supersonic speeds towards the Techno Serf.

She struck the Serf directly in the chest and knocked him off his feet. The Serf gave a grunt as the two sailed through the air. Eventually, the Serf landed on the ground and both skidded to a halt. Samus looked at the Serf's life bar on her HUD and found that he had lost all but a tenth of his life bar. Seeing this as her chance to end the battle, she charged her Wave Beam once more before opening fire on the Serf. The Serf tried to rise but found himself unable to do so. Samus then leveled her arm cannon at him and let fly. The single Wave Beam blast struck the Techno Serf squarely in the chest and electricity arced across his body for a few seconds. One the electricity died down, the suit of armor began to crack into its component pieces and it fell off of his body, revealing a human male in his late twenties to early thirties with bright red hair and green eyes. Looking at the man, Samus recognized him as the notorious criminal, Rand Excer. Rand looked up at her and grinned. "Good job, hunter. It looks like you've beaten me," he told her in a sinister tone. "But don't get cocky. The N'Kren and the Ylla have some pretty nasty gear and power. For example, try this for size."

He then produced a grenade and pressed a button on his watch. "This bomb produces a vaporization field that will destroy you and everyone within a one hundred meter radius. Time to say…" but Samus never let him finish his sentence, for before he managed to activate the bomb, she annihilated him with a volley of blasts from her Wave Beam and her Plasma Beam.

Once the fight was over, she scanned the corridor to make sure that there were not more enemies. Once she was sure that the corridor was clear, she called over to everyone, "It's clear everyone. Let's go."

The escapees then proceeded to form up behind Samus and followed her down the corridor and towards the armory. Checking her map, the armory was only a hundred meters away.

Meanwhile, in the orbit of Aphros, Admiral Dane stood inside his ready room onboard the _G.F.S Olympus_, flanked by Commander General Adam Malkovich, Old Bird, Gray Voice, and U-Mos. They looked at the long-range scans that were being performed by the advance task force that had taken Mars. So far, the reports were spot on with what Samus had told him. Seven thousand ships were currently stationed over Earth, with three thousand ships being held behind the shield produced by Orbital Ring Eight. They read over the reports from their spies on the planet and found that the fleet was being coordinated from the ground via the Radio Tower, and the Heavy Defense Platforms were firmly under the control of the Galactic Federation. They soon read the reports that Cyrus had already begun his offensive on Japan and that it would only be a matter of time before his troops managed to take control of Sinnoh and Johto. And once that happened, then it would not be long before he managed to find the fabled Sinjoh Ruins and put his plans into motion.

"He's getting close to his goals," Adam said, looking at the incoming reports.

"I know," Admiral Dane said.

"We must do something soon," Old Bird said. "We can't afford to simply stand by and watch as Cyrus gets closer and closer to accomplishing his goals. If his plans really do involve the destruction of the universe, then we have to act."

"Indeed," Gray Voice agreed. "I can already sense that things are changing. The Chozo Ghosts are very agitated at the moment."

"How many ships have we managed to assemble, so far?" U-Mos asked.

Admiral Dane looked down at his reports and said, "So far, we have managed to call up three thousand starships, with another three thousand in reserve and coming as we speak, but we have had to take them from other key worlds and sectors, including Aliehs Three and Corella Five. This means that those worlds will only be left with skeleton fleets at best, along with their own defense platforms for defense. They won't last against any type of concerted assault."

Cyrus won't launch an assault on any of those worlds," Adam said flatly. "He only has one concern: Earth. Everything in this civil war has been about the conquest of Earth. Now that he has it, he won't let it go. He'll call in every single starship in the Galactic Federation if that is what it takes for him to keep the Earth."

"You can count on the Chozo to aid you in this battle," Old Bird and Gray Voice declared in unison.

"And the Luminoth as well," added U-Mos.

"Excellent. Thank you," Admiral Dane told them. That would add another hundred ships to the fleet. It was not much, especially when compared to the number of N'Kren and Ylla ships, but every ship they could get would help. "Now, that only leaves the information that we've got on Earth. So far, Orbital Rings One through Seven have been destroyed, but Eight is still intact. That means that there is still a shield protecting Earth." He turned to Old Bird, Gray Voice, and U-Mos, and asked, "Can your ships breach that shield and/or destroy Orbital Ring Eight if worst comes to worst?"

Each of the ancient aliens nodded. "We can," they said in unison. "But it will be costly and time consuming. We would lose much, if not all, of our fleet in doing so."

"I see," Admiral Dane said, considering his options.

Adam went over to him and said, "Sir, we have to go now. Cyrus is getting too close to his goals. If he succeeds, it's all over for everybody."

"Samus may still be able on that ring and be able to destroy it. If we go too soon, that ring will tear our fleet to shreds. Besides, Samus is still onboard. I don't want to risk killing her until we have no other choice."

"I know," Adam replied. "And the possibility of potentially killing Samus weighs heavier on me than you will ever know. But I also know that it is what _she_ would want given the situation and the consequences should we fail. We have to go now and stop Cyrus before it's too late. Every minute we spend here is one minute that Cyrus gets closer to his goal."

Admiral Dane considered what General Malkovich was saying and eventually, he admitted, "You're right, Commander General. Tell your troops to get ready. We're going to take back Earth."

"Yes, Admiral," Adam said, saluting Dane. Admiral Dane then returned his salute and Adam left the ready room. Admiral Dane soon followed suit and proceeded to make his way out of his ready room and down the corridor that led to the bridge of the _G.F.S. Olympus_.

Admiral Dane stepped onto the bridge of his ship and looked out over the rest of the bridge crew. He then looked out the window at the rest of the fleet. Three thousand ships had already been assembled. He soon saw two subspace windows open and a hundred Chozo and Luminoth ships emerge from the windows. With that, Admiral Dane told the communications officer, "Lieutenant, open a channel to the rest of the fleet."

He waited for a second and a beep sounded, prompting the officer to report, "Channel open."

Admiral Dane then took a deep breath and said, "I've not been one for great speeches, so I'll get down to the point. We are going to Earth to take back humanity's birth world from a corrupt regime. I would have much rather taken this action when we had fully recovered from our recent losses and while Earth was not so heavily defended. However, Cyrus is not leaving us any options. Either we go now and stop him, or we sit back and watch as our universe is destroyed. I'm certain you all know by now what Cyrus's true goals are and how his so-called perfect universe will be made from the ashes of the current one. We cannot allow that to happen. To that end, we shall stop him…or die trying." He then turned to his helmsman and navigation officer and told them, "Lay in a course for Mars. We'll try to draw away some of their forces and force them to engage us there before going straight to Earth."

The officer soon reported back, saying, "Course laid in, sir."

With that report, Admiral Dane ordered, "Jump!"

As soon as he had given the order, a subspace window opened, and the fleet jumped to Earth.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11:

A subspace window opened close to Mars and Admiral Dane's fleet of thirty-one hundred ships exited the subspace window over the Red Planet's orbit and scanned the area between Mars and Earth. The bridge window instantly turned into a Heads Up Display and showed the area between the two planets. Two large dots representing Earth and Mars appeared on the screen, with a smaller dot in Earth's orbit representing Luna, Earth's Moon. Surrounding Earth was a single Orbital Ring, the sole remaining ring of a defense network that was supposed to keep any and all unauthorized personnel away from the planet in order to allow Cyrus to carry out his goals in peace. A cloud of dots surrounded Earth, along with several clouds appearing in spaces between Earth and Mars. The tactical officer, a pretty human woman with light brown hair and green eyes looked back at Admiral Dane from her station and told him, "Sir, I am detecting almost seven thousand capital starships in the orbit of Earth, with more than a quarter million starfighters being scrambled as we speak. Several wings already coming towards us. What are your orders?"

Admiral Dane looked at the viewer and ran through his options. He had suspected that Orbital Ring Eight was still intact since all previous reports indicated that the Ring was still intact. He looked at the viewer and saw that the enemy was not sending any capital ships towards them, merely sending in waves of starfighters. He could not help but grin. That would be a fatal mistake. The tactical officer kept eyeing the Admiral and eventually asked, "Sir, do we scramble our starfighters?"

Admiral Dane smirked and replied, "No, not yet." He then paused and turned to his communications officer, a young human woman with brown hair and gray eyes, and said, "Lieutenant, open a channel to the starfighters that jumped with us."

A beep-like chime sounded and the officer reported, "Channel open, sir, though there is a little interference. It will likely get worse the closer to Earth we get."

_So they're using the Radio Tower to not only help coordinate the fleet up in orbit, but also to jam out communications. And they're even able to affect our communications out here_, the Admiral thought. That was not unexpected. Admiral Dane then told the fighter squadrons, "Attack fighters and space superiority fighters, jump into the midst of the enemy fleet and begin launching attacks on the Federation capital ships. Avoid the N'Kren and Ylla ships. They'll stand their ground and fight; besides, they can likely take what the fighters can dish out, or shoot it down anyway, but you might just get the Federation ships to turn and focus on you. Once you expend your ordnance, split up into squadrons, run like crazy, and jump back to us. Hopefully, we'll get a few squadrons of starships to jump to us and try to engage us before we deal with the main fleet. Wings one and two, you're up first."

Just then, two wings of Katana-class starfighters and Wraith-class bombers formed up into two wings and gave the signal that they were ready. As they did so, the executive officer sitting next to Dane asked, "But sir, won't we need those fighters to fight off the Federation fighters that are coming our way?"

Admiral Dane shook his head. "No, the Federation fighters are not multi-role fighters. In addition, save for the Stilettos, they are primarily designed for planetary defense. We have the top of the line starfighters, bombers, and interceptors specifically designed for not only dealing with enemy fighters, but also capital ships. Not only that, but we've also upgraded the point-defense systems on all the ships in the fleet. Those fighters will be in for a big surprise when they come to attack."

Once the fighters had indicated that they were good to go, Admiral Dane cried, "Go!" Upon his orders, the fighters jumped to Earth.

After jumping to Earth, the enemy Federation fighters came into range of the weapons of the capital ships of Admiral Dane's fleet. Once they were within range, Admiral Dane commanded, "All ships, open fire!"

Scarlet pulses of energy erupted from the energy cannons of the fleet and towards the enemy fighters. The rate of fire was so great that it looked as if they were beams rather than pulses. The enemy fighters were taken completely off guard by the attack and before they could even begin evasive maneuvers, an entire wing of fighters had already been annihilated. The rest of the fighters then attempted to perform evasive maneuvers to try to avoid the torrents of energy fire being unleashed against them, but many were unsuccessful. The only thing they could do was to try to open fire on the fleet and hope that they managed to score a few critical hits on the ships. The Claymore-class starfighters then proceeded to unleash their missiles towards the fleet, but many of the missiles were shot down before they even managed to get close. It was not long before the Claymores met the same fate, along with the rest of the Federation starfighters.

Back near Earth subspace window opened in the midst of the Federation fleet, with it opening right on the top of an Asgard-class heavy cruiser. The subspace window tore open the cruiser and equipment and crew spilled out of the hole, as if the ship were bleeding. The fighters that emerged from the window ignored the stricken cruiser and focused on the capital ships in front of them. Using their combat experience, the pilots quickly formulated plans for inflicting the most damage that they could in the shortest amount of time possible, for while they had caught the Federation off guard, several wings of starfighters were being launched from the Earth's surface and Orbital Ring Eight and were fast approaching the attacking starfighters. The Wraiths unleashed their payload of matter-antimatter missiles into the nearest capital ships, which consisted of several Midgard-class cruisers, Asgard-class heavy cruisers, a large number of Griffin-class frigates, and even an Olympus-class battleship. The point defenses of the warships managed to shoot down some of the missiles, but the volume of fire was so great, and the fighters attacked so quickly, that most of the missiles managed to get through and score direct hits on the capital ships. In the first volley, two Griffin-class frigates had been destroyed, along with a Midgard-class cruiser and the Olympus-class battleship, with two Asgard-class cruisers suffering heavy damage and floating dead in space. However, a wave of Federation fighters launched from the surface were closing in on the attacking Federation in Exile fighters and scarlet flashes of energy past the cockpits of the Katanas and Wraiths was their signal to jump out. The fighters jumped out just beyond the optimum firing range of the point defense weaponry of the Federation fleet and flew back towards the Federation in Exile fleet at Mars. The enemy starfighters pursued them, but only the Stilettos were able to jump to the rest of the enemy, and into the shooting gallery that been made for them. A couple Olympus-class battleships and a Gehenna-class dreadnaught also gave chase, and met the same fate as the fighters.

Meanwhile, Samus Aran and the escapees made their way down the corridor, and towards the armory. As they ran, they looked out a nearby window and watched as Federation in Exile starfighters made their attack runs on the Federation capital ships in the middle of the fleet. They watched as explosions lit up space not too far away from the Ring. They saw a line of fire form along the spine of an Olympus-class battleship and it took them a moment to realize that the line of fire was actually the impacts of a volley of missiles unleashed by two squadrons of Wraith-class fighter/bombers. "Looks like the space battle has started," President Richardson noted. "We have to hurry. This Ring is still capable of producing a shield that a large number of ships can hide behind and fire through."

That was all that the others needed to hear to peel their gazes away from the window and follow Samus and the President towards the armory. When they arrived at the set of doors that led to the armory, they found the armory to be guarded by a dozen SATs. Samus, President Richardson, General Hastings, and Captain Falcon took point and were the first to open fire on the SATs. Four SATs went down in the initial volley. The Security Android Troopers, having no self-preservation protocols, proceeded to stand in the line of fire and open fire on Samus and the escapees, many of whom were diving for cover. Samus took a few hits to her suit, but only lost ten units of energy. Her return volley was far deadlier, felling two more of the robots. President Richardson and General Hastings soon emerged from cover and took a few shots at the robots as well. They managed to take down a single robot, while taking the arm cannon off of a second, before they were forced back behind cover by a barrage of scarlet energy pulses. Samus continued to fire on the SATs, and managed to destroy the four remaining undamaged robots, as well as the robot that President Richardson and General Hasting had damaged in their last barrage.

After the battle had concluded, the rest of the makeshift platoon emerged from their cover and followed Samus, President Richardson, Captain Falcon, and General Hastings to the armory. Once they arrived, they stuck to either side of the door. Samus quickly spotted the lock and keypad with a blue light next to the door. Activating her Scan Visor, she proceeded to hack the keypad and the light turned green. The door slid open and the escapees surged on through led by Captain Falcon, with Samus, President Richardson, and General Hastings bringing up the rear.

The interior of the armory was lined with weapons racks and cases, along with suits of Federation Marine and Army Trooper Power Armor. In addition to the weapons, there were several Galactic Federation Army Troopers with a noticeable emblem of _TG_ on the foreheads of their helmets. This was the signal that these soldiers were likely members of Team Galactic, or at least were personally chosen by Cyrus and were completely loyal to him. When the doors opened and the escaped prisoners surged on through, led by Captain Falcon, the soldiers went for the closest weapon they had, but more often then not, they were riddled with energy and bullet holes from the weapons of the prisoners. The enemy soldiers were quickly felled by the volley of fire before they could even cry out a warning. However, the sound of the gun and energy fire was enough to alert the others inside the room that enemies were present. One soldier, a burly Simian, came charging in and began to touch his wrist, as if he were about to activate a weapon or call for reinforcements. He was quickly felled by a blast from Samus's Wave Beam. Electricity arced across the Simian's body and he was rendered unconscious, and the watch was disabled. This was most fortunate, for he was about to summon his Techno Knight suit of armor. Samus and the others did not recognize his face from any of the most wanted lists on any world, so they decided that it was best to lock him in a closet for the time being until he regained consciousness. As several of the prisoners were moving the Simian into the closet, two more soldiers came out and engaged them. Unfortunately, for them, they were shot by the escapees before they were able to fire off a single round. Samus had even added her own weight to the fire by firing several blasts from her Light Beam, which annihilated the enemy, indicating that they were evil. Once the two soldiers had been taken care of, half of the escapees split off into groups of three and four and patrolled the rest of the armory to search for any hidden soldiers. The sound of gun and energy fire resonated in the area, along with the thuds of falling bodies. After a few minutes, each of the escapees reported back to the main gathering area having cleared the entire armory, taking down six hiding soldiers, and losing no one in return.

Once the armory was cleared the group proceeded to head on over to the lockers and begin opening the crates to see what was inside. What was inside the lockers and the crates was a treasure trove of ordnance, munitions, weaponry, and armor; for the crates contained all sorts of guns, missiles, bombs, grenades, and personal shield generators, while the lockers were chock full of suits of Federation Marine Power Armor and Army Trooper Power Armor. Some of the Army suits looked to be equipped with plasma cannons, while some of the Marine suits looked to be that of Missile Troopers. There were even some personal cloaking devices present for the troopers, or Samus to utilize.

"Man, we must be in heaven," one of the prisoners exclaimed. Samus looked over at the prisoners, all of whom were sifting through the weaponry, and she suspected that these were either captured Galactic Federation Marines or Army Troopers. President Richardson went to examine some of the suits of armor and he soon settled on a black Stealth Federation Marine suit of armor. In addition to being a Federation Stealth Marine suit of armor, the energy assault rifle had an underslung grenade launcher that was capable of launching Photon Grenades, grenades that carried small matter-antimatter warheads whose explosions could yield in excess of one hundred and fifty tons if set to full power. They were about the only weapon that had any chance of harming a Techno Knight on the ground. General Hastings found a Galactic Federation Army Trooper suit that was equipped with a plasma cannon and a shield generator.

Meanwhile, Samus passed by several lockers and crates and examined the weaponry. While she did so, she also scanned several of the prisoners who had taken Federation Army and Federation Marine armor suits so she would not have to scan the enemy later on to be able to identify the shield level and armor integrity of said enemies. While she was doing so, she came across what looked to be a missile floating above a crate. General Hastings, noticing Samus heading over to the missile, called out to her and said, "That's a Power Missile. It was developed by the Federation and is based on Chozo technology."

Samus smiled as she headed over and scanned the Power Missile. The scan read, _Object – Power Missile. The Power Missile is, in effect, a missile version of the Power Bomb. At full power, the Power Missile is slightly superior to a Photon Grenade in total yield. To launch a Power Missile, switch to Power missiles and fire. Only ten Power Missiles can be stored in your suit at any given time._

Samus grinned as she reached her arm cannon towards the missile. It was basically a missile version of the Power Bomb, if not even stronger. The cannon made contact with the missile and it immediately vanished. An energy field glowed as the Power Missile was incorporated into her Power Suit. After a few seconds, her arm cannon's glow died and her HUD read, _Power Missile incorporated into Arm Cannon. Use secondary missile firing unit to fire Power Missiles. Beware of blast radius._

Once she had incorporated the Power Missile into her suit, she searched the rest of the armory for other useful weaponry and gear. She quickly came across what looked to be an experimental weapon. She scanned the item and the scan read, _Object – Sniper Beam. The Sniper Beam is based upon the Imperialist, a weapon of choice used by the Kriken Empire. It fires a red laser of incredible power at a target and can inflict devastating damage. The Zoom Visor is automatically incorporated with this weapon. Unlike the Imperialist, though, this weapon has its own power supply and does not use Universal Ammunition canisters and has a faster rate of fire._ This was good, Samus thought. She would not have to worry about ammunition.

After acquiring the Sniper beam she checked the rest of the armory to see if there were ant other interesting items that she could use. She quickly came across a device that she had overheard one of the escaped Marines refer to as a personal cloaking device. She scanned the device and the scan read, _Object – Personal Cloaking Device. The Personal Cloaking Device is a piece of technology that can be incorporated into any Federation Marine or Army suit of Power Armor, as well as the armor of Chozo soldiers. It renders its user invisible to the naked eye and to most sensor systems. This variant has a time limit of ten seconds per use, with a five second recharge time, however, said variant also allows the user to fire all weapons and have all shields deployed while in use without drawing energy from the user's Energy Tanks or energy system. Cloak is undetectable to thermal sensors, though X-Ray sensors will still manage to detect the user_.

Samus gave a satisfied smile. The cloaking device would be of great use for her in the mission. While its short time limit and recharge time would limit its utility, it would allow her to get in a powerful first strike should her enemies not be using X-Ray sensors. She then approached the device, which was smaller than her Grapple Beam attachment, and attached it to the left arm of her suit. The cloaking device was immediately integrated into her suit's systems and once the integration was complete, a message on her HUD read, _Personal Cloaking Device acquired_.

Samus then proceeded to search the rest of the armory for any other weaponry and items that might be useful for her. She quickly stumbled across a small ball with an S on it, suspended in midair inside a container. She instantly recognized the small ball as being the Spazer Beam upgrade. She immediately opened the container and the Spazer Beam upgrade fell to the bottom of the container. She then activated her Scan Visor once more, her scan reading, _Object – Spazer Beam. The Spazer Beam splits user's beam attack into three separate beams. When charged, the pulses are larger, increase in number and spread out further, and retain their normal effects. However, the damage dealt by each pulse is proportionate to the number of the pulses that "split" from the normal beam or charged beam, making the Spazer effective against large numbers of weak enemies at close range, but less effective against stronger enemies unless the entire blast can still be focused on said enemy, and nearly useless at long range_.

Once she finished her scan, she stuck her arm cannon into the container and had the tip of the cannon make contact with the Spazer Beam upgrade. The upgrade promptly disappeared and a glow appeared over her arm cannon. After a few seconds, the glow died and her HUD read, _Spazer Beam acquired_. Knowing that the Spazer was a safe beam to test, she activated her Spazer upgrade and targeted an empty locker and fired an uncharged Spazer Power beam shot. A trio of small, orange pulses emerged from her arm cannon and streaked towards the locker. The three pulses burned neat holes into the locker with the width of the spread being about three feet. She gave a curious look at the locker. The spread seemed to be a little more focused than she remembered until she noticed that the spread of the Spazer could be modified. She modified the spread and fired several more test shots to see what the default Spazer setting should be. She settled on a middle ground and then gave one final test by charging her Spazer Power Beam. She unleashed a cloud of small orange energy bolts on a target off in the distance and watched as the target was perforated by countless energy balls. The metallic target collapsed under the weight of the energy fire. She gave a satisfied smile. The Spazer Beam would serve her well in future battles. She then switched off the Spazer Beam for the time being.

She then looked around the rest of the armory for anything else that caught her eye, but found nothing of interest to her that she did not already have. The armory mostly contained missiles and Super Missiles that were inferior to her own, along with all of the variants of her Power, Ice, Wave, and Plasma Beams. Once she was satisfied that she had gotten everything that was of use here, she went back to the main assembly area to meet up with the other escapees, who were now dressed in suits of Galactic Federation Marine and Army Trooper power armor. She found that the prisoners were simply waiting for the President and several other prisoners to be finish going over the armory. Once they came back, one of the prisoners then said, "Alright, guys. Now that we're armed, we can get out of this place."

"Not so fast," President Richardson called out. "First, we have to destroy this Orbital Ring." Turning to Samus, he finished, "That's why you're here, right?"

Samus nodded. "Yes, sir," she responded.

Richardson then continued, "And by the looks of things, chances are that you found us by using the main computer to locate us, but were unable to hack into the computer to activate its autodestruct sequence."

"Yes, Mister President," she answered, nodding.

President Richardson then turned to the other prisoners and told them, "You all saw the space battle that was beginning outside. The Galactic Federation in Exile is beginning to launch its assault on Earth, but it will have to get past Orbital Ring Eight and breach its shield in order to get through to the planet below. To that end, we have to destroy the Orbital Ring in order to clear the path towards Earth."

"Why take out the whole Ring?" one of the prisoners asked. "Shouldn't taking out a singe sector of the ring provide enough of a hole for the fleet to pass?"

President Richardson shook his head. "There are seven thousand ships out there, with many behind the shield at this very moment. If we only destroy a single sector of the ring, the self-destruct safety protocols will not activate and send the sectors away. Even with a reactor detonation inside the Ring when the other sectors are still attached, the most we'll be able to do is disable two, maybe three sections of the shield. It will still allow the Federation to concentrate its fleet, as well as the surface to space defenses, on the hole in the shield and shoot down any transport that tries to land on Earth. And that's before taking into account Earth's primary planetary shields. No," the President concluded, shaking his head. "Taking out only a couple reactors won't be enough to neutralize the Ring's threat. We have to take out the whole thing."

"But how do we do that?" another officer asked. "The reactors are matter-antimatter reactors. The only way to take them all out would be to disable all of the safety protocols. The shields that are raised over those reactors are meant to keep all of that energy inside, rather than have it spill out and destroy the station. And even if we could collapse the shields around the reactors, there are so many reactors. After all, this Ring _does_ reach around the entire planet."

"I know," Richardson said. "Which means that we're going to have to find some way to hack the main computer and initiate the self-destruct sequence from there."

"But I've already been to the main computer and tried to activate the autodestruct sequence," Samus informed him. "The computer stated that the autodestruct protocols were deleted and I could not even find them using my Scan Visor."

"Then we'll have to find some way to reinstall them," the President answered. "Or we could try to reconstruct them from the remains inside the computer. It's not easy to erase a program like an autodestruct program within a few minutes, and from all of the reports that we heard and the fact that two of the weaker bounty hunters were left to guard us with the rest of the guards going to intercept you, chances are that you were destroying the Rings pretty quickly. Deleting the autodestruct sequence in a way that it could not be reactivated would be difficult, especially for a computer like this that would almost certainly have multiple redundancies."

"Let's hope so, sir," she replied. "As for the mission, I'll be the one to get to the main computer and try to reassemble the self-destruct program and protocols."

"You'll need help," Richardson told her.

"I'll go with her," one of the escapees in Stealth Marine armor said, stepping forward. "One of my areas of specialty is working with computers and operating systems. I'm the best qualified to assist her."

Just then, several former prisoners, now Federation in Exile Marines stepped forward and said, "We'll go too. They'll need all the protection she can get while they hack the system."

"I'm not going to leave you all, now," President Richardson said, looking over at Samus and the Stealth Marine.

After the first group of Marines had volunteered for the mission, the rest of the escapees then stepped forward and said, "We're with you, too."

Samus, the Stealth Marine, and the others smiled. The group then assembled around a screen on the wall that contained a map of the entire Ring. The key indicated that the main reactors were labeled in blue, with teleporters being labeled in yellow, and the main computer in red. In addition, there seemed to be several computer control centers and repair centers where spare parts were kept, something that the bounty hunter quickly took notice of. Samus quickly noticed that one of these bays was close to the armory. If there was the possibility of having backup files and programs in the event of the main computer being hacked and several key programs being deleted, then this would be the place where they stored the backup disks. Samus then told the others, "Before we go to the main computer core, we should stop at one of these computer repair centers to see if we can download a repair program for the main computer. That could allow us to repair the autodestruct protocols and allow us to set the autodestruct sequence for the Ring."

The others had no objections. Once that course of action was decided, the group then sought the location of the hangar bay on the map so they could find a ship with which they could escape, but found none. However, there _was_ a Heavy Assault Shuttle that was docked at a hatch less than a hundred meters away from the entrance to the main computer control center. The group could scarcely believe their eyes. They figured that God must have been smiling on them today. "Looks like we've even got an avenue for escape," one of the Army Troopers said.

"Assuming that the shuttle stays put for long enough," another Army Trooper replied.

Turning to one of the Marines, General Hastings ordered, "Check the itinerary of that shuttle. I want to know what they're doing with that shuttle, fast."

The Marine quickly went over to a computer console and entered a search for the itinerary of the Heavy Assault Shuttle that was docked close to the main computer control center. After a few seconds, the Marine answered, "It's in for repairs, upgrades, refueling and resupply. They're arming it with missiles and rear-mounted twin energy cannons. Its upgrades are already installed, so it's just being repaired, resupplied, and tested as we speak. They should be finished within the hour. Once they're finished, they are going to load up on some assault troops and take them down to Earth to join in the assault on the Johto region of Japan."

That did not leave the group a lot of time. They knew that they had to time this just right. If they arrived too soon, the shuttle would not be able to leave the ring. However, if they were too late, then the only way off this Ring would be to use the escape pods, and the pods would likely spread out the force. They realized that they had to start now, so they had a cushion should they be able to get the data they needed quickly and efficiently.

With that, President Richardson and Samus led the way out of the armory and the group proceeded to make their way towards the nearest computer repair center. Along the way, Samus spied a Techno Power Suit off in the distance with the faceplate retracted. Focusing on the face, she found that it belonged to the notorious war criminal, General Grey C. Roger, the commander of the 1st Mechanized Legion of the Galactic Federation. He and his legion had opened fire on hospitals and orphanages on Corella 5 when the Galactic Federation had launched an attack on the planet and even managed to land ground troops. The fleet that he had been a part of had also shot down any and all evacuating civilian starships, even foregoing military targets that were escorting and protecting said civilian ships. While much of the fleet had been destroyed, and Roger's troops driven off of Corella 5, the death toll had been staggering. Ten million civilians had been slaughtered in the battle. Roger and his forces had also been part of attacks launched on civilian convoys and transports. The Galactic Federation in Exile had viewed him as a terrorist, while the Galactic Federation had touted him as a highly competent and decorated commander.

Samus did not need to use her Light Beam to test the evil of General Roger, for she had been present at the Battle of Corella 5. She zeroed in on the exposed face of the Techno Power Suit's occupant and switched to her Sniper Beam. Her Visor switched to a type of sniper scope that resembled the Imperialist's scope. She targeted the center of General Roger's face and once she was certain that her aim was true, she fired. A red laser emerged from her arm cannon and instantly struck the face of the war criminal, completely disintegrating it. The Techno Power Suit promptly fell over on the ground, the helmet falling off of the rest of the suit and rolling to a halt a few feet away from the suit's body. Samus then scanned the rest of the area and found no enemies present, so far. She motioned for everyone to go out and head towards the computer repair center. The others then charged forward and she brought up the rear, making sure that no one managed to ambush the party from behind.

As they continued down the corridor towards the computer repair and storage center, they were met by a dozen Galactic Federation Marines and Army Troopers. The Federation Marines and Army Troopers opened fire on the escapees the moment they caught sight of them. However, since they were equipped with only their standard weapons and had no heavy weapons, most of their weapons fire merely bounced off of the shields of the Marines and Army Troopers. While the bullets did manage to inflict damage to the weaker shields of the suits of the escapee Army Troopers, they were next to useless against the escapee Marines. However, the Federation Marines' energy assault rifles proved to be far more effective, inflicting heavy damage to the shields of two Federation in Exile Marines. However, the Marines were able to survive the initial volley and managed to dive behind a wall outcropping while returning fire before their shields collapsed, or were breached. Two Federation Marines were felled by the return fire of the Federation in Exile Marines, along with four Federation Army Troopers. Samus soon joined the fight, firing a charged shot from her Light Beam along with her new Spazer upgrade. Pulses of golden light erupted from her arm cannon and spread out from her arm cannon like a shotgun blast. The blasts struck the four remaining Federation Marines and Federation Army Troopers and a golden light surrounded the troopers upon impact. The suits of the Federation Marines quickly fell to the ground, completely devoid of any trace of DNA. The Army Troopers also vanished in a long flash of golden light, leaving nothing but their suits of armor behind. Once the way was clear, the group moved forward.

It did not take long for them to reach the computer repair center. As they arrived, they found that it was guarded by a butterfly-like humanoid soldier with wings that resembled a butterfly. "Crud," Captain Falcon spat. "A Ylla soldier. Why'd we have to face off against one, now?"

Samus had heard of the Ylla and saw pictures of them before but had never seen one in person before, until now. According to the Chozo, they were the second strongest of the unaugmented warriors of the Chozo Alliance, second only to the Luminoth. Like the Luminoth, the Ylla rarely wore armor, having their own natural armor and the ability to generate shields. She grimaced at the prospect of having to fight a Ylla. She quickly made certain that her beam was still set to her Light Beam and told the others, "Stand back. I'll handle the Ylla soldier."

The others, including President Richardson, nodded in affirmation and stood back, with Captain Falcon taking point, as Samus stepped forward and began to scan the Ylla soldier. The scan read, _Morphology – Ylla. Despite being a peaceful race, the Ylla are quite formidable opponents in battle. The Ylla soldier has the ability to generate energy shields and project energy and can use this ability to enhance personal shield generators and energy pistols that they carry into battle. Shields can be breached by a Wave Beam, which can also be used to stun them for a second when fully charged._

Samus took a deep breath and switched to her Wave Beam. While she had no proof, she had a suspicion that the Ylla might be able to sense her even if she was cloaked. She tested this theory by activating her personal cloaking device and charging her Wave Beam. She then rushed towards the seemingly unsuspecting Ylla soldier and prepared to fire when the Ylla suddenly turned and leveled an energy pistol at her and fired a pulse of green energy towards the bounty hunter. She instinctively dove to the right and managed to avoid taking a hit. Seeing that the cloaking device was not very effective in evading a Ylla, she deactivated her cloak and took aim at the Ylla. "So the cloaked soldier is a Chozo bioweapon," the Ylla scoffed. It was as if he had seen better weapons.

Samus did her best to show that there was a reason that the Chozo had referred to her as "Metroid", which means ultimate weapon in their own language. The Ylla was being evasive and would have been able to evade her fire had the Wave Beam not had the ability to track its quarry. Unfortunately, for the Ylla, the Wave Beam _did_ have that ability, and Samus put it to good use as she fired on the Ylla soldier, quickly switching to her Light Beam and charging it immediately after firing her Wave Beam blast.

The Wave Beam followed the evasive Ylla soldier and managed to score a direct hit on the butterfly-like enemy. The beam penetrated the Ylla's shields and struck the skin of the soldier directly. Electricity arced across his body and stunned him for a moment. In that moment, Samus unleashed a charged Light Beam blast upon the Ylla. The Light Beam struck the Ylla soldier and engulfed him in a wave of golden light. The alien cried out in pain as the light inflicted noticeable burns on his body, though the light did not disintegrate him the way it had Space Pirates and evil humans and other evil forces. Instead, it merely severely burned the Ylla. The alien fell to the floor, writhing in agony as the light eventually dissipated. "How? Why?" she heard the Ylla ask weakly. "Why would the Light Beam do this to me? I'm not evil."

"Maybe because you are fighting for evil," Samus answered harshly as she leveled her arm cannon at the fallen Ylla.

"But I'm fighting for the Galactic Federation on the orders of my own people," the Ylla countered. "My people aren't evil!"

"But the Galactic Federation, or this mockery of it, is," Samus almost yelled in response. "Some of its admirals have authorized the annihilation of civilian convoys, the conscription of children, and attacks on purely civilian targets, specifically hospitals, orphanages, and marketplaces. These aren't collateral damage, either. These are primary targets! And Cyrus has done nothing to stop it. How can you justify that? And what's worse is that you know that these evils are going on, yet you do nothing to stop them. You don't even try to talk the perpetrators down. That makes you accomplices!"

"This is the Galactic Federation's war!" the Ylla roared. "We, the N'Kren, the Luminoth, and the Chozo are, or rather _were_, in the case of the Chozo and Luminoth, their allies! The Chozo and Luminoth have betrayed the Federation!"

"No!" Samus answered in a low, harsh voice. "The Galactic Federation betrayed the Galactic Federation. When Elric took over, the Federation under him betrayed all of the ideals and institutions that it had been founded upon. Even after Elric died, that did not stop. Now that Cyrus has taken over, the admirals that Elric put in place still have free reign to conduct this war. After all, Cyrus doesn't care about what happens on Aether, Tallon IV, Aliehs III, or Corella 5. All he cares about is Earth! He says he wants to destroy the Magic Lords, but all he really cares about is finding the Sinjoh Ruins on Earth so he can find a way to create his own universe at the cost of this one. He's using the threat of the Magic Lords to get you to abandon your principles and protect him and his cohorts as he searches for the means to end the universe. Yes, his plan to destroy the Magic Lords may succeed, if they are stupid enough to remain here, but his way of annihilating them will at the very least sacrifice Earth, along with six billion plus people, if not the entire universe. And even with all of that, there's no guarantee that the Magic Lords will be in this universe when Cyrus's plan goes into effect."

"It does not matter," the Ylla spat. "We gave our word, as did the others in our alliance. The Chozo and Luminoth have betrayed their word, and the Federation."

"Wrong," Samus seethed. "_You_ are the traitors." She then shot him again with the Light Beam. This blast was uncharged, but it still inflicted great pain on the Ylla and he cried out again as his body was covered with more burns. He writhed on the floor, barely able to hold back tears. A third shot would most certainly be fatal. "And the damage you have suffered from the Light Beam proves that you're wrong."

To prove her point even further, she looked behind her and found Captain Falcon coming towards her. She then charged the Light Beam and once it was charged, she turned the beam on herself and fired. The beam struck her in the chest and engulfed her in a bright golden light. Unlike what happened with the Ylla soldier, though, she was not harmed in the slightest. After a few seconds, the light dissipated and she stood there, completely unscathed. The Ylla stared at her in wonder and apprehension and asked, "What did you do? Why weren't you harmed?"

Samus turned to the Ylla and saw the stunned expression on his face as he looked continued to stare at her. Samus then turned to Captain Falcon and answered his question, saying, "Because I am fighting to save the world, and the universe. Unlike you, I haven't surrendered to fear and abandoned my principles. I will continue to fight for what is right, even if I'm the only one who has the courage to do so."

"But she's not the only one who has the courage to do so," came the voice of President Richardson from behind the bounty hunter as he lead the others past the Ylla soldier.

The Ylla could only look up as the others walked by and glared at the fallen alien. Many who walked by shook their heads and muttered, "How the mighty have fallen." It was not meant to indicate the Ylla soldier's weakness, physically, but an indication that the Ylla, and the N'Kren by extension, had betrayed their own ideals and beliefs. And what was worse was the fact that the so-called Federation had used their own beliefs and honor to turn them into monsters. As the humans passed, Samus knelt down and stripped the soldier of his personal shield generator and energy pistol. She then shot both with her Power Beam, destroying both items. She then followed the humans to the computer repair and service center, leaving the Ylla lying on the ground to think about what she had said, as well as his own actions, or inactions of the last year.

The group arrived at the computer service center and President Richardson said, "Captain Gibson, you and a squad of Marines go in and get that data. The rest of us will stay out here to guard the entrance. Hopefully, our disguises will ward off any unwanted attention and allow us to keep people out of the center without arousing any suspicion."

Captain Gibson, the Stealth Marine that was also a computer expert, nodded and saluted the President and took a squad of ten Marines with him as he followed Samus into the computer repair and service center.

The interior of the computer repair and service center seemed to be completely abandoned. Captain Gibson glanced at the Marines and told them, "Search the area. Clear out any threats that you find."

"Yes, sir," the Marines responded in unison. They then split up into groups of two and searched the entire center for any signs of potential enemy activity. So far, they found none. Meanwhile, Samus and Captain Gibson went to work trying to find a disk or memory drive that had the original unmodified operating system for Orbital Ring Eight.

Outside the center, President Richardson and Captain Falcon spied two squads of Galactic Federation Security Officers and SATs approaching. They quickly retreated to the rest of the platoon and told them, "We've got company. Act naturally, guys."

The platoon nodded and stood guard by the entrance to the computer service center. After ten seconds or so, the Federation Security Officers and SATs approached in lines, seemingly on routine patrol. As the Security Officers made their way past the "Galactic Federation Marines" and "Army Troopers", they nodded and saluted. The "Marines" and "Army Troopers" returned their salutes and the group walked past without incident. The Federation in Exile personnel relaxed a bit once the Federation Security Officer made their way past.

Back inside the compute repair and service center, Samus and Captain Gibson continued to pour over the center to try to find any memory drives, disks, or data crystals that might have contained the operating system for the Orbital Ring and/or anything that might contain the original program for the main computer before its autodestruct sequence was deleted. So far, they had met with no success. Captain Gibson was currently sitting at a computer, searching its files for any information on the programs it may have contained. So far, there was nothing about the Ring's autodestruct protocols. Meanwhile, Samus was scanning each and every computer, disk, memory drive, and data crystal in sight with her Scan Visor, trying to ascertain whether or not the original operating system for the main computer core, or at least the autodestruct sequence for the Ring, was on any of the drives. She overlooked nothing. However, she did not find any indications of finding the either the original operating system, or the autodestruct protocols of the Orbital Ring on any of the computers or drives. Eventually, she came across a nondescript I Pad-like computer and proceeded to scan it. Her scan read, _Object – Personal Computer Pad. Scan indicates that this pad contains the original and unaltered operating system for the main computers of the Orbital Rings._

_Yes_, Samus thought, grinning. She gathered the pad and called over to the Marines and Captain Gibson, saying, "Captain, I found a pad with the operating system for the main computers of the Orbital Rings!"

Captain Gibson rose from his computer and rushed over to Samus. When he arrived, she handed him the pad and he input a few commands on the pad. Its screen soon showed all of the programs that were a part of the operating system. It was not long before he came across the autodestruct protocols for the Ring. He studied the protocols and found that they would be easy to implement should they manage to load the original operating system back on the main computer. He then deactivated the pad and turned to the rest of the squad, saying, "Alright, guys. We've got what we need. Let's go."

He did not have to tell the Marines twice, for they immediately stopped what they were doing and followed him and Samus back out into the main corridor. Before leaving, though, they turned off all of the computers and Captain Gibson erased any evidence of the group ever having been in the center.

Back in the corridor, Samus, Captain Gibson, and the squad of Marines met with President Richardson and the others, saying, "We got the data we need. Now all we need to do is get to the main computer and plug this pad in." Gibson then showed the pad to President Richardson and the others.

When Richardson saw the pad, and got a quick glimpse of the data, he said, "Alright. Let's get this over to the main computer control center and install the autodestruct protocols into the computer."

That was Samus's cue to bring up the map and find the nearest teleporter that would take them to the main computer control room. She found that there was a teleporter close by, but that it would not take them to their desired destination without some modifications. However, she felt as if her Scan Visor was up to the task of hacking the teleporter and reprogramming it to take them to the main computer control room. She told them, "There's a teleporter about six hundred meters ahead. This way!" she ushered them, taking the lead and charging her Power Beam, ready to deal with any enemy that may stand before them.

She would be challenged soon enough when she saw a Techno Soldier. barring their way. She turned and yelled to the others, "Get a safe distance away from here! I'll handle this!"

The others did not have to be told twice. They quickly retreated back the way they came and left Samus alone to deal with the Techno Soldier. This one did not look like a Serf, but did not have the thick armor of a Knight, either. She activated her Scan Visor and scanned the soldier. Her scan came back, _Morphology – Techno Squire. Techno Squires are armed with stronger weapons than Serfs, but do not have the armor of Knights. Like all Techno Soldiers, they are vulnerable to the Wave Beam and the Screw Attack_.

Samus had no intention of having a long, drawn out fight with the Techno Squire, though. She intended to finish this battle as quickly as possible. She figured that it was time to put her Power Missiles to the test. She pulled the secondary missile launch trigger inside her arm cannon and it opened up even wider than it did for firing a Super Missile. A large missile with a ruby red warhead emerged from the cannon and she targeted the Techno Squire. She braced herself for the ensuing explosion as she fired the Power Missile. The large missile erupted from her arm cannon and streaked right to the Techno Squire. As it erupted towards him, Samus immediately spin jumped into a Screw Attack to protect her from the ensuing detonation. The Squire did nothing to dodge the missile, figuring it to be insufficient to deal with him. He did not realize his mistake until the missile hit him squarely in the chest and detonated, engulfing him in a massive explosion equivalent to an explosion of one-quarter kiloton of TNT. The tactical nuclear weapon-like explosion obliterated the section of the corridor, blowing out the walls and exposed much of it the remaining area to space. Air continued to rush out of the corridor until the emergency force fields activated and stopped the decompression. After the explosion had dissipated, examined the results and found a humanoid lizard-like figure that she recognized as a Lizardian, a member race of the Galactic Federation, kneeling among a pile of burned metal that she figured was the remains of the armor of the Techno Squire. He held his side, indicating that he was injured, but he also had an energy pistol in his hand. She stared at him and pleaded, "Don't do it!" as she quickly switched to her Light Beam. The Lizardian raised his weapon at her and she reflexively fired a single uncharged Light Beam blast shot at him. The beam of golden light hit him in the chest and engulfed him in a field of blinding light and disintegrated him. Samus gave a sigh. Yet another Galactic Federation soldier that was evil enough to be killed by the Light Beam. She then turned back to the others, who were coming back towards her and motioned for them to continue.

They made their way down the ruined corridor, encountering no further resistance. Eventually, the group finally made it to the teleporter. When they did, Samus went to work scanning the teleporter so she could reprogram it. She got into its systems quickly and began to reprogram the device. After a few seconds, it was ready to go. She informed everyone, "Okay, it's ready."

With that, she activated the teleporter and groups of four stepped onto the pad. She, Captain Falcon, President Richardson, and General Hastings were the first group to teleport. Once they stepped onto the pad, they remained still for a few seconds and then vanished. After they were away, the rest of the Marines and Army Troopers stepped onto the pad and vanished, one group after the other. In less than a minute, the last of the escapees had disappeared.

The escapees reappeared on a teleporter just outside the doorway to the main computer control center. Each team waited for the others to arrive and once they did so, Samus made her way into the main computer control room along with Captain Gibson, Captain Falcon, and a Federation Marine Missile Trooper for security. The rest of the platoon remained on guard outside, watching for any signs of enemy soldiers approaching. So far, there were none. Many of the troopers looked off in the direction of the docked shuttle. President Richardson even sent down some Stealth Marine reconnaissance troops to see if the shuttle was still docked with the Ring. Upon seeing that the shuttle was still docked with the Ring, they reported back to the President, informing him that the shuttle was still docked and a viable means of escape. President Richardson nodded and the Stealth Marines quickly took their positions in the defense of the main computer control center, waiting for Samus and Captain Gibson to upload the original operating system and reinstall the self-destruct protocols into the main computer.

Inside the main computer control center, Samus and the others came across two Galactic Federation Army Troopers and eight SATs. The Army Troopers immediately drew their weapons at the sight of Samus and the three Marines that were with her. But they were too slow to fire on Samus before she managed to shoot them. While Captain Gibson, Captain Falcon, and the other Marine dealt with the robots, Samus fired a volley of Light Beam blasts at the two Army Troopers. The Light Beam pulses instantly struck the two troopers in the chest and they were engulfed by the golden light generated by the explosion of the light pulse. After a few seconds, the light faded and left the two troopers completely unharmed, allowing them to open fire on Samus. Her suit suffered no damage to her shields. This made things a little more complicated since the lack of injury inflicted by the Light Beam meant that these two Army Troopers were not evil. Even so, though, she was still concerned about the other Marines, who were currently blasting the SATs apart with their energy assault rifles. Samus switched to her Wave Beam and fired a volley of pulses at the two troopers. Their unshielded armor suits did not protect them from the electrical pulses and lightning arced across their bodies. The two troopers gave short cries and fell to the floor, unconscious. Samus then went over and helped Captain Gibson and the other two Marines deal with the remaining Security Android Troopers; there were only two left. In less than a second, the android was literally shot to pieces. Gears and parts from the chassis fell out of the robot and fell to the floor, the robot reduced to a pile of metallic debris. Once that was finished, she went over to the unconscious Federation Army Troopers and destroyed their assault rifles and Freeze Guns with single blasts from her Power Beam, rendering them ineffective even should they regain consciousness.

With the defenses of the room having been dealt with, Captain Gibson and the others headed to the computer as Samus went over to a Recharge Station in order to restore the energy and ammunition that had been expended this mission. She stepped into the center of the station and a wall of energy rose around her. She felt a refreshing sensation as her suit's Energy Tanks, missiles, and Power Bombs were filled. Once she was finished, she stepped out of the station and made her way over to the main computer's console.

Once she arrived, she activated her Scan Visor and hacked into the main computer of the Ring. The screen above the console came to life. Using her visor, she proceeded to direct the computer to open all drives and ports in order to accept new data. Once the drives and ports were open, the voice of the computer then blared over the speakers, saying, "Main computer drives and ports open. Input data now."

Samus then stepped aside and allowed Captain Gibson to step forward. He did so and took out the pad that contained the operating system for the Ring and plugged it into the computer. Gibson stared at the screen and waited for the icon representing the datapad to appear. Once it did so, he moved a control mouse over to the icon and clicked on it. The icon folder opened and an icon representing the data for the original, unmodified, operating system appeared. He then clicked on it and a query came up asking whether or not he wanted to download the new data to the computer. He clicked, _Yes_, and the symbol flashed green. The computer then said, "Uploading data for new operating system update. Upload will take approximately ten minutes."

Samus and the others suppressed groans at the revelation of the slow download. Samus opened a channel to President Richardson and informed him of the situation, saying, "Mr. President, sir, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that we're uploading the new operating system and update to the main computer. The bad news is that the download will take around ten minutes."

There was a pause before President Richardson responded, "Thanks for the update Samus. We'll keep watch over things out here."

She then shut down the channel and focused on the entrance to the main computer control center, and wait for the data to be uploaded, and hope that no one managed to interfere with the upload.

Outside the main computer's control room, President Richardson and General Hastings continued to stand guard around the computer control room. Despite the number of troops that were stationed around the room, none of the passing troopers seemed to indicate any suspicion that the troopers standing outside the computer control center and the wall were anything other than Galactic Federation Marine and Army Troopers. All throughout the ten minutes that he and the others would have to wait, President Richardson checked his suit's chronometer to see just how much time was left before the upload was complete.

After six minutes had past, he sent down two Stealth Marines to check on the shuttle. They cloaked themselves and made their way down to the shuttle almost a hundred meters away and noticed several technicians standing around the shuttle, talking to the pilot, who looked to be a Star Elf dressed in a Federation Fleet Trooper uniform. "Well, it looks like everything checks out. You're fully fuelled and armed. It looks like you're good to go," the head technician, a middle aged human male said.

"Thanks," the pilot answered. "I'll contact the troops. Cyrus wants as many Techno Knights to assist in the takeover of Sinnoh and Johto as quickly as possible."

"With all the Techno Knights that that thing can hold, he'll be able to conquer all of Earth," the technician laughed.

"Yeah," the pilot responded, joining the technician in his laughter. "And there's nuthin' the people of Earth will be able to do to stop it. It looks like their time has finally come."

As the technicians and the shuttle pilot were laughing, the two Stealth Marines opened a channel to the President and the others, telling them, "Hey guys, you'd better get down here now. The pilot's about to take off and we're going to expose ourselves when we try to stop him."

"Understood," President Richardson's voice crackled in over their comms. "Neutralize the pilot and any troopers that try to board the shuttle. We'll be down there, ASAP. I'll inform Samus and Captain Gibson of the situation."

"We copy," the Stealth Marines replied.

The Stealth Marines quickly went over to the pilot and the technicians and decloaked and approached the pilot and technicians. The pilot and technicians were startled by their sudden appearance and they took a step back. "What are you all doing here?" the pilot asked.

"We're here to relieve you. We have orders from above. We're going to be the ones to take the shuttle and its troops down to Earth," one of the Marines replied.

"I was told that this shuttle was going to be transporting Techno Knights down to Earth to assist Cyrus in his final takeover of the Johto and Sinnoh Regions of Japan."

"Well, we got new orders. We've been told to take a contingent of Marines down to reinforce the forces defending the Radio Tower and Capitol Building against Earth resistance attack."

"That's funny," the pilot said, questioning the validity of the orders. "We received no orders. I'll have to ask for your mission orders and authorization."

The only response the pilot and technicians got were a few stun bolts from the Stealth Marines. The pilot and technicians were unable to draw their defensive weapons before the low powered stun bolts fired from the Marines' energy rifles rendered them unconscious. The only reason the Stealth Marines had not killed them was because firing their weapons at full power would have set off the security alerts onboard the Ring and alerted all of the security personnel to their presence in this sector of the Ring. Once they had rendered the group unconscious, they grabbed the pilot and technicians' unconscious forms and dragged them to the nearest escape pod. They stuffed them into the escape pod and jettisoned it down to the planet below. Once the shuttle pilot and the technicians had been dealt with, the others began to stand guard by the shuttle.

After a minute or so, President Richardson and the others arrived and met the Stealth Marines. When they met, the Marines told them, "We've dealt with the pilot and the technicians, sir. The ship is fully fueled and armed."

"Excellent," the President said in a satisfied tone. "You two stand guard out here. The rest of you, get onboard the shuttle. I want everything ready to go by the time Samus and the others get here."

"But sir, Captain Falcon and Samus are our best pilots," one of the Army Troopers told him.

"I know," the President responded. "But we can still do a final tally and check of its systems, as well as power up the shuttle and do a preflight check. We're going to have to leave this Ring pretty quickly once Samus and the others get onboard."

The Army Trooper nodded, realizing that the President was right, and the group went about carrying out Richardson's orders.

Back in the main computer control room, Samus heard President Richardson inform her, "Samus, Captain Falcon, Captain Gibson, and Lieutenant Grant, we've taken control of the shuttle. Once you activate the autodestruct sequence, get over here as fast as you can."

"We will," Samus assured him. She then checked the clock and saw that there was still one minute left to go for the upload of the original operating system of Orbital Ring Eight, as well as its self-destruct protocols.

The quartet waited out the remaining minute with Captain Falcon and Lieutenant Grant watching the exit in order to make sure that no one managed to enter the computer control center and surprise them, while Captain Gibson and Samus waited by the computer. The minute finally passed and the computer reported, "Upload complete. All applications and programs are now accessible."

That prompted Captain Gibson to tell Samus, "Okay Samus, it's your show."

With that, Samus activated her Scan Visor and used it to access the main computer's programs. She searched for all protocols and quickly found the autodestruct protocols, as well as security lockout protocols. She first brought up the autodestruct sequence and the screen flashed red and three options appeared on the screen: one for a five minute countdown, one for a two minute countdown, and one for a one minute countdown. Before deciding on what sequence to activate, she turned and asked everyone, "Do you think you all can make it to the shuttle in about one and a half minutes?" She wanted to leave enough time for them to board the shuttle and to be able to detach from the Ring before the ring began its self-destruction, as well as enough time for her to activate the security protocols so that no one would be able to disable the autodestruct sequence.

The others nodded in affirmation. "We can make it," Captain Gibson assured her.

Samus turned back to the computer and chose the two-minute countdown. Upon entering the final commands, the computer said, "Autodestruct sequence activated. Two minutes until Orbital Ring destruction." A large countdown clock then appeared on the screen and lines of red lights flashed throughout the Ring. Samus then turned to the others and told them, "Get out of here. I'll lock out the computer so no one can disable the autodestruct. I'll catch up to you when I'm done here."

The other Marines and Captain Falcon had no objections and proceeded to rush out the exit. While they were running, Samus brought up the security protocols and input a series of commands that locked the computer so that it could not be tampered with. Once that was finished, she followed Captain Falcon and the others out of the main computer control center.

Outside the control center, she saw that the others already had a head start on her, though she would easily be able to catch up. However, turning to her right, she noticed a contingent of Federation Marines, Army Troopers, SATs, and Air Defense Drones coming her way. Before following the others to the shuttle, she switched to her Ice Beam and targeted the lead forces, a group of SATs, Air Defense Drones, along with a few Army Troopers. Once the Ice Beam was ready, she fired a blast from the Ice Spreader. An expanding ball of ice shot out from her arm cannon and streaked towards the oncoming force. The ball hit dead center of the front ranks of the oncoming force. The blast then exploded and engulfed no less than ten enemy soldiers, plus numerous smaller flying drones, in ice. The smaller drones came crashing to the ground and shattered on contact. Some even crashed into frozen SATs, shattering both. The massive block of ice that was formed covered a large part of the corridor, blocking many of the approaching troopers. However, some went around the edges of the ice block and continued to rush towards Samus, causing her to fire a series of uncharged Ice Beam blasts before fleeing from the oncoming force. As she ran towards the shuttle, she charged another shot from her Ice Beam so she could fire another blast from her Ice Spreader should she have the need to do so. As she continued down the corridor, several of the troopers and SATs were firing through the ice block, itself, in order to allow the rest of the force to continue the pursuit of Samus, shattering the soldiers that were frozen inside that block. Samus looked back at the scene and could scarcely believe it. They were little better than Space Pirates. Had the Federation fallen so far? Once they had shot a hole through their own frozen ranks, the troopers and SATs continued to surge after the bounty hunter.

Samus saw the shuttle off in the distance. Captain Falcon and the others were already boarding the shuttle. She noticed several scarlet energy pulses fly past her visor, along with the sound of metal thumps. The outline of the indicators on her HUD flashed red, but no damage was registered to the shields. She figured that the Federation Army Troopers were firing their ineffective assault rifles. Several of the blasts struck too close to the shuttle's boarding hatch for comfort, so she turned and unleashed another blast from her Ice Spreader. The expanding mass of ice rocketed towards the oncoming force and managed to strike an Army Trooper before detonating in a massive wave of ice, encasing more than a dozen soldiers, androids, and flying drones. As before, the flying drones were brought down by the freezing blast of energy and crashed into the floor, shattering on contact.

She did not stop to blast any of the troopers that were making their way around the large block of ice in the middle of the floor; she merely turned and headed towards the shuttle. As she ran, she took the occasional shot back at the enemy force, hoping to score a few hits on them to halt their charge, or at least make them think twice about continuing the attack. However, they did not stop and continued to surge after her.

Eventually, Samus reached the shuttle and rushed towards the boarding ramp. As she approached, two friendly Marine Missile Troopers exited the ramp to cover her escape. They fired missiles from their missile launchers that flew by Samus's head, missing her by inches. They fell among the enemy and blew massive holes in their ranks as they approached. The missiles managed to stop the charge for a second before they continued once more. However, that second was all that was needed in order to fully ensure that Samus and the others managed to get through the boarding hatch and onto the shuttle.

Once she and the other Marines were onboard, she quickly closed the boarding hatch. The hatch slammed shut and Samus rushed into the shuttle cockpit. Once she arrived, she saw Captain Falcon sitting in the copilot's seat. She quickly took to the pilot's station, all the while checking her clock. She found that she had less than thirty seconds remaining before the Ring blew. Seeing that the startup sequence had already been initiated, she disengaged the shuttle from the docking clamps of the Ring and steered the shuttle a ways away from the Ring. She then tilted the shuttle down towards Earth and proceeded to take it straight towards the atmosphere. As she did so, she made certain to check the IFF beacon to make sure that the shuttle was still broadcasting as a friendly air/spacecraft.

As the shuttle rocketed away from the Orbital Ring, President Richardson, General Hastings, and the other escapees looked out the window as they counted down the final seconds to the Ring's destruction. At the moment the clock reached _zero_, a series of explosions could be seen flashing across the entire ring as far as the eye could see. The various sections of the ring then proceeded to rocket off into space away from the planet, and into several of the capital ships that had stationed themselves a little too close to the ring. The sections that struck capital ships either destroyed said ships, or knocked them out of their path, inflicting severe damage to said ships. Once the Ring's sections were a safe distance away from the planet, they exploded, spraying shrapnel throughout all of space, and into the lines of the Galactic Federation fleet defending Earth.

Once the Ring had been destroyed, Samus proceeded to take the shuttle into the atmosphere. As she did, so, she looked back at President Richardson, who was seated in one of the passenger seats, and asked, "Mister President, where do you wish to go?"

He answered, "Take us to the Radio Tower in New York so we can drop off a couple squads to take control of the Radio Tower. Then, we can take the rest of the force to Washington to take control of the Capitol Building. As long as the Radio Tower is under Federation control, they might be able to jam the Capitol Building's signal to the Defense Grid."

She nodded and then banked the shuttle and set course for the New York City. She could only smile as she piloted the shuttle. So far, this mission had been easier than she expected, far easier than an S-rank mission should have been. And with the other Marines and Army Troopers, President Richardson, General Hastings, and Captain Falcon present, she felt as if Earth might have a chance after all.

In the orbit of Mars, Admiral Dane and the rest of the fleet were finishing off the enemy fighters and capital ships that had broken ranks in pursuit of the Katanas and Wraiths that had jumped into the middle of the enemy starfleet. Admiral Dane was not too disappointed with the results. Two hundred capital ships, many of them Unicorn-class destroyers, and old Ba'al and Moloch-class cruisers, were destroyed in the fighting, while only four ships in Admiral Dane's fleet had received moderate shield damage. After the last of the Federation capital ships exploded, Admiral Dane checked the viewscreen and noticed that the image of the Orbital Ring surrounding Earth had disappeared. The voice of the sensor officer then rang out, calling, "Admiral Dane, sir, sensors indicate that Orbital Ring Eight has been destroyed! The shield over Earth is down!"

Elation filled Admiral Dane's heart. Finally, the eighth and final Orbital Ring had been destroyed. The path to Earth was clear. The only things between his fleet and Earth were the subspace minefields that were interspersed between Earth and Mars, and the Federation fleet orbiting the planet. Admiral Dane told the communications officer, "Open a channel to the minesweepers. Tell them to come forth and to start clearing a path for us to Earth."

"Yes sir," the officer responded as she opened a channel to the minesweepers and told them to enter the battle.

Almost instantly, a dozen large capital ships that looked more like cannons than ships jumped out in front of the fleet. They then formed a line in front of the fleet and once they were in position, they began to fire large asteroids forward, close to Earth, being careful to make sure that the asteroids would not strike the Earth. They also fired shotgun-like blasts of rock and metal as well. At first, there was no reaction, but after a few seconds, bright flashes of light appeared off in the distance. Admiral Dane smiled as the asteroids were setting off the sensors of the mines in the minefields that had been set up between Earth and Mars. He knew that they would have to clear the rest of the minefields after they retook Earth, but right now, opening a clear path to Earth was the primary objective.

For the next hour, the minesweepers continued to fire asteroids, large and small, into the minefield, causing the mines to prematurely detonate. After a while, the ships' long-range sensors indicated that there were massive gaps in the minefield. These gaps were more than large enough to take the entire fleet through without a problem. Admiral Dane then told the communications officer, "Open a channel to Earth."

"Channel open, sir," the officer replied after a beep.

Once the channel was open, Admiral Dane proclaimed, "All ships, prepare to jump to Earth." He then waited for a few seconds for the ships to get in position. Once they were ready, he cried, "Jump!" A series of subspace windows then opened in front of the fleet, and the Federation in Exile fleet jumped into subspace, and less than a second later, reappeared over Earth.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12:

Admiral Dane's fleet appeared in the orbit of Luna, just out of range of the energy weapons of the Federation's Earth Defense Fleet. Castor Dane stood on the bridge of the _G.F.S. Olympus_ and stared at the bridge window. The image of Earth appeared in the distance. He also made note of the thousands of small dots appearing in front of the planet: the Federation fleet and the Earth's planetary defense grid consisting of three hundred Heavy Defense Platforms, and thousands of smaller automated energy turrets, missile launchers, and smaller defense platforms. And that was before adding the countless starfighters and assault transports and assault shuttles that were being scrambled and flying towards the Federation in Exile fleet. The warning sensors went red and alarms blared as the targeting sensors of the enemy fleet locked onto Dane's fleet. Fortunately, they were still out of range so Dane's forces were safe, for the moment. Looking down at the communications officer, he asked, "Lieutenant Gates, can we get a signal through to Earth or to the Federation fleet?"

"Not with the Radio Tower jamming us," Gates responded.

Admiral Dane grimaced. He had hoped to be able to send a reassuring signal to the people of Earth that the true Galactic Federation fleet had returned to help them and that the time to take on Cyrus was now. For the moment, he would have to hope that he could keep the Federation fleet occupied and open up some holes for his own transports to fly through so ground troops could be landed in Japan and America. Turning to the sensor officer, he asked, "Lieutenant Commander, put the fleet displacement on the main viewscreen."

"Aye sir," came the reply from the thirty year-old human male with red hair and green eyes.

The image of the Earth and the Federation fleet and the defense grid surrounding the planet appeared on the bridge window. Thousands upon thousands of dots appeared on the screen, as did a filmy field that surrounded the planet. "Sir, Earth has raised its planetary shield," the sensor officer alerted.

Admiral Dane cursed. Now any chance of landing troops was cut off. The only way to be able to send down troops would be to breach the shield, which would be nigh impossible with seven thousand ships standing before them. "Open a channel to the fleet," Admiral Dane called out.

A beep sounded and a channel was opened. Once the channel was opened, Admiral Dane ordered, "All ships hold position here. Try to draw the enemy out towards us. All Archangel-class battlecruisers, Olympus-class battleships, up front and get to just barely within energy weapons range. All other ships stay behind us. Missile frigates and missile destroyers, get to the rear lines and target the lead ships of the Earth Defense Fleet. On my word, open fire! Everyone else, launch starfighters, but keep them back and on hot standby until either further orders are given or the enemy jumps into our formation."

A chorus of "aye sirs" flooded in over the speakers. Admiral Dane sat back as the fleet moved itself into position. The Olympus-class battleships and Archangel-class battlecruisers moved forward slowly, but surely. The modifications that had been made to the Olympus-class battleships allowed them to have the same weapons range as the Archangel-class battlecruisers, though they were not quite as fast or maneuverable as the newer, smaller, starship. Still, with these modifications, Admiral Dane's forces could still hurl energy bolts at a still enemy force at around three hundred thousand kilometers away and still be accurate with their fire, and have their weapons inflict damage. Combined with the missile fire of the missile frigates and missile destroyers, they felt as if they could inflict significant damage in a first strike scenario. But that was not their only goal. Admiral Dane also noticed the many starfighters that were approaching and he told the missile ships, "Missile frigates and missile destroyers, fire anti-capital ship missiles, along with anti-starfighter missiles. Pick your targets wisely. I want as many of the enemy starfighters destroyed as possible."

The affirmatives rang in over the speakers as the ships prepared their weapons. Admiral Dane looked out at the fleet and the approaching fighters once more and said, "This is too easy. There's no way that they would make this mistake twice." He remembered back to the reports of the first Battle for Earth, where the Federation fleet had sent in wings of starfighters towards the defense fleet to soften them up, only to have the starfighters get annihilated by a missile barrage, as well as the Federation in Exile defense fleet open fire on the enemy while the enemy was still just out of range of their Federation in Exile counterparts. Here, though, Dane had the slight advantage in being able to retreat should the fleet come forward and try to get within range of their weapons. Still, he knew that eventually, the Federation fleet would jump the necessary few thousand kilometers in order to close the distance and enter firing range. He merely hoped that they would not do so until they had lost much of their fleet.

He looked out at the Federation fleet, which was merely sitting there, waiting for him to make his move, and he said, "All designated ships, fire!"

As soon as he gave the order, the Olympus-class and Archangel-class ships opened fire with their energy cannons and missile launchers, with the missile frigates and missile destroyers launching volley after volley of missiles. Scarlet lances of energy erupted from the primary energy cannons of the large capital ships on the front line and crossed the distance between the two fleets in a single second. Bright orange explosions appeared in the space between the two fleets as the energy lances carved lines out of the starfighter ranks that were approaching the Federation in Exile fleet, vaporizing the unfortunate starfighters. After their second of travel time, the energy beams found their mark, the lead ships of the Galactic Federation defense fleet. Most of the ships in the fleet consisted of Ba'al and Moloch-class frigates and Unicorn-class destroyers, but there were also some Pixie-class light cruisers, Midgard class cruisers, and Asgard-class heavy cruisers present as well. The shields of the Federation ships absorbed the first volley without too much difficulty, but they were still out of range of their weapons, so they could only try to move forward while shifting power to the forward shields of the ships. Despite doing so, the volleys of energy beam cannons began to take their toll and before they could get within weapons range, many of the ships were destroyed or rendered dead in space. They had still fired their missiles towards the attacking Federation in Exile starships, but the point-defense cannons of Admiral Dane's ships had all day to target and shoot down the slower than light missiles. Very few missiles managed to get through, and the small number that did get through, did not inflict significant damage to Dane's forces. However, a few of the front line Federation starships managed to get within range before their destruction and lash out in vengeance of their impending demise, but it was too little, too late. Their lack of coordination meant that they spread their fire out amongst the entire front lines of the Federation in Exile fleet, instead of focusing on a few of the stronger ships. In the end, they inflicted only minor damage before they, too, met their end.

As for the missile ships, they had different targets than the first ranks of the enemy. Positioned much like archers from old Earth medieval battles, the missile frigates unleashed their weapons fire from well away from the main warships of the enemy fleet. Their targets were not just the incoming enemy starfighter forces, but their own Federation counterparts: the Hydra and Hind-class missile frigates and destroyers used by the Galactic Federation starfleet. The anti-starfighter missiles that were launched at the approaching enemy fighters consisted of casings that contained dozens, if not hundreds, of small explosives that would be magnetically attracted to the metal of the starfighters' hulls. The explosives would then detonate and either damage or destroy the starfighter, depending on how many explosives were connected to the starfighter.

True to their design, the missiles unleashed by the frigates zoomed towards the enemy starfighters without even slowing down. Once they were among the enemy starfighters, they exploded and shot forth thousands of small explosives into the enemy starfighter squadrons. The initial detonations of the missiles, themselves, was often enough to destroy small flights of fighters, with the explosives annihilating the rest of the squadron. Small, round, silver spheres erupted from the casings and streaked towards the nearest starfighters they could find, detonating upon impact with the fighter. The first volley of missiles caught the enemy starfighters off guard and the first few wings were annihilated before they even managed to get close. The rest of the fighters, wise to the next volley of incoming missiles, began to split apart and station their squadrons a little farther apart so as to avoid the incoming barrages of explosives that would erupt from the missiles. But it was not enough to save them and even with their own countermeasures, they were unable to avoid many of the explosives. More fighters and ATCs met their end at the hands of the merciless barrage of explosives.

With the starfighters having to deal with the explosives, they were unable to even attempt to intercept and destroy the anti-capital ship missiles that streaked towards the missile frigates, and missile destroyers of the Galactic Federation fleet. The point-defenses of the Federation fleet were not nearly as advanced, or as effective, as those mounted on the ships of the Federation in Exile's fleet. Blue, orange, and red energy pulses lashed out towards the approaching missiles, but for every missile that was shot down, five managed to make it through. The missiles streaked towards the Hydra and Hind-class missile ships and inflicted heinous damage to the missile ships. Many of the missile ships fell to single volleys of missiles, while others were severely damaged or destroyed. In a single barrage of fire, the missile frigate and destroyer forces of the Galactic Federation fleet was crippled. And with their ability to utilize long ranged attacks severely damaged by the first strike, the Federation fleet was in trouble. Admiral Dane smiled at his good fortune as the missile barrage was quite effective. He knew that his fleet was still outnumbered, but at least, for the moment, he had the edge in ranged combat. He then watched as the battle continued and his forces opened fire again, launching more energy and missile barrages into the Galactic Federation fleet from outside the Federation ships' firing range. He did not know how long it would take for the Federation fleet admiral to jump his forces into their own weapons' range, but Dane would take every advantage he could get and milk them for all they were worth.

Meanwhile, on the surface of Earth, on the outskirts of the Johto Region of Japan, just over Cianwood City, Cyrus rode inside a drop shuttle, holding onto the hand holds, looking down at the series of streets where Galactic Federation Army Troopers and Marines were exchanging fire with a group of Earth Army Troopers, Marines, and Pokémon Trainers, with numerous Pokémon that resembled various creatures from Earth, but often had special abilities that made them more formidable. Among the most powerful of the Pokémon were the Gyarados that unleashed massive orange Hyper Beam attacks on the attacking Federation troopers, blasting large valleys into the troops and their armor support. The Federation troopers returned fire, but the blue and white sea serpent-like Pokémon were giving them a great deal of trouble. They continued to have a rough battle and had been sent into full retreat until a volley of missiles and energy orbs rained down upon them and sent them scurrying for cover farther into town as Federation troopers and a squadron of Techno Soldiers, mainly Serfs and Squires, with a Knight in the lead, arrived and aided the retreating Federation troops, giving them a renewed sense of hope. Those that had not been quick enough to flee were killed by the explosions. The Federation troops still pursued the surviving Earth defenders and the Pokémon Trainers, but at several turns, they were met with a hail of scarlet energy pulses and oftentimes, bolts of lightning as well, which breached their shields of their suits, shorted out the armor, and either killed or severely injured the trooper inside. In addition, not all of the Gyarados were killed when the Techno Soldiers and other reinforcements arrived, so those that survived were directed to concentrate their fire on the Techno Knight.

Orange Hyper Beams powerful enough to destroy mid-sized towns with single blasts were unleashed upon the Techno Knight and the other Techno Soldiers, inflicting moderate damage to the opposing force. Two Techno Serfs were annihilated in the attack, along with a Techno Squire, but the Knight took everything that was sent his way and emerged with only minor damage. However, the damage had been done. The Knights were revealed to the Pokémon Trainers and the other soldiers to not be invulnerable to enemy fire, so hope retuned to the soldiers and they continued to focus on the Federation Army Troopers and Marines, while the Pokémon Trainers dealt with the Techno Soldiers. Soon, the Gyarados were joined by six Dragonites, orange and tan dragons with two orange antennae and small wings. Despite their power, they looked to be much more good-natured and easygoing than other Dragon-type Pokémon. The Dragonites unleashed their Hyper Beams upon the Techno Knight and scored direct hits on the soldier. While the Techno Knight may have been able to survive one hit, six blasts were noticeably more difficult to survive, especially when each Dragonite's Hyper Beam could destroy almost a third of Goldenrod City, the largest city in the Johto Region. The Techno Knight did not have a chance. Before he could fire on the Pokémon, six Hyper Beams converged on his armor, which had already taken a hit from a few Gyarados Hyper Beams. The beams blew through the Techno Knight's armor and annihilated the Knight. The rest of the soldiers then focused on dealing with the Dragonites while they were recharging from using their Hyper Beams, unleashing missiles and barrages of energy fire on the creatures, managing to either kill or critically injure one of the Dragonites, while wounding two others enough to force them to land. The return fire, however, was just as damaging to the Federation soldiers as the Dragonites gouged massive lines into the ranks of the Federation soldiers when they unleashed massive streams of fire and energy meteors as they fired volley of Flamethrower and Draco Meteors. Entire ranks of Federation soldiers were destroyed, but with each platoon that was annihilated, two more came up to support them. Still, the Federation was suffering obscene casualties, losing eight soldiers for every soldier or Pokémon that the Earth defenders lost. As such, the Earth's military forces were still forced to retreat, despite the damage they were inflicting on the invading Federation forces.

Cyrus looked down at the scene with a flat expression on his face. The lives of the Federation soldiers and the Earth military troopers that were being lost or ruined due to injury was not important to him. All that mattered to him was getting to the Sinjoh Ruins and getting his forces to take control of Mount Coronet. He watched as another Techno Knight came onto the scene, flanked by several Techno Power Suits, N'Kren soldiers, and Ylla warriors. They immediately began searching house by house for any signs of Earth military soldiers and Pokémon Trainers, or even civilians that were merely supporting the Earth's defenders. The sounds of energy fire could also be heard, along with some thuds, indicating that the occupants inside the houses were killed. Cyrus almost smiled. This was what conflict was all about. And this was what would happen as long as people had emotion and spirit. Even if he were stopped, there would still be conflict since there would still be evil people and beings in the universe. If _he_ won, though, he could use his two Arceus trophies to create a new Dialga and Palkia to destroy this current universe and remake it in his own image, with him being its new god. Looking over at the pilot, he said, "Take me to the forward command center."

"Yes, sir," the pilot responded.

The shuttle then banked to its right and proceeded to fly over Cianwood City, and over a small sea, which was still being contested by several watercrafts from both sides of the conflict. The Earth sea naval forces were being aided by water Pokémon and were gaining the upper hand in the fighting. He ignored the battle and focused on making sure that they got to their forward command center in Goldenrod City. The shuttle landed on the beach, where most of the troops were assembling. Many troops were coming in via seafaring vessels and assault shuttles, being deployed on the beaches of the city, for the Federation knew that with all of the Pokémon in the city, that it would be exceedingly bloody if they landed troops inside the city.

Once they landed, Cyrus immediately got out of the drop shuttle and ran over to a makeshift command post, complete with a computer and a broadcast antenna. Standing inside the command post were a N'Kren soldier, Ylla warrior, and a single human. Once he arrived at the command post, he went over to the human, a man with red hair, wearing a Team Galactic uniform, and said, "What's the situation, Mercury?"

Mercury turned towards Cyrus and answered, "Sir, we have just received reports that Orbital Ring Eight was destroyed."

"What?" Cyrus blurted.

Mercury nodded. "The autodestruct sequence was activated from inside, even after the self-destruct protocols had been erased. She must have found the data inside one of the computer repair centers and used a disk or memory stick to upload the original operating system and overwrite the modified version, reinstalling the Ring's autodestruct sequence. As for how she could have gotten through security, the Rings _were_ researching new weapons that were being developed by the Galactic Federation in Exile. If one of these weapons had been acquired by Samus, it could give her an edge against an enemy force in combat."

"Are there any indications that the prisoners were onboard the Ring when it exploded?" Cyrus asked, getting the subject away from Samus.

"None that I know of, one way or the other?" Mercury replied.

"Damn," Cyrus swore. "Now we don't know whether or not President Richardson and the others, survived!"

"If I were to put money down, I would guess that Samus _did_ rescue them," came the response from the N'Kren soldier standing next to Mercury.

"So, where do you think they'll go?" the Chairman asked.

"If I were them, I would go either to the Radio Tower to neutralize the jamming field it's producing, or to the Capitol Building in order to bolster any assault force that may come to Earth," the N'Kren soldier responded.

"Too late," came the voice of the Ylla warrior standing next to him. "We're receiving reports that the Federation fleet's already here."

"No!" Cyrus yelled, slamming his fist into a metal table. He then turned to the Ylla and said, "Tell me, what's the status of the defense fleet up in orbit?"

"They're holding steady, for now. Admiral Dane's attacks, however, are inflicting significant losses, though, especially to our starfighter forces."

"Okay," Cyrus began, turning to the Ylla warrior. "Kehlan, you get back up into orbit and direct your fleet. Also, get the Star Fox Team out and ready to deal with Admiral Dane's forces."

"Understood, Chairman," Kehlan said, bowing. He then went to depart, heading to the nearest shuttle which was about to take off. Turing to the N'Kren soldier, he said, "Hi'Gor, I'll want you to send your strongest Techno Knight to the Capitol Building and aid in its protection. We can't afford to let Samus or the President take control it, and Earth's Defense Grid. I'll call in some help from a few friends to try to take care of Samus before she manages to get to the Capitol Building. As for right now, I want you to standby and assist in the fighting, for the time being. I'll have another mission for you shortly and I'll contact you when I need your help."

"Understood, sir," Hi'Gor responded. He then took out a device and held it in his hand. He then transformed into a Technoble and rocketed into the sky and towards the lead line of troops that were making their way into Goldenrod City.

With the departure of Hi'Gor and Kehlan, Cyrus went to the communications array and opened a secure channel and said, "Pigma Dengar, do you read me?"

"Loud and clear," came a high-pitched screechy voice that sounded quite sleazy to the ear. "Whadaya want, Cyrus?"

"Pigma, Samus Aran has destroyed Orbital Ring Eight and is likely coming into the Earth's atmosphere as we speak. Her likely destination will either be the Radio Tower in New York City, or the Capitol Building. I want you to go to the Radio Tower and scan any and all ships in the area. I'll be sending over some fighter support as well to help you."

There was a moment of silence over the comm before Pigma asked, "So, how much ya willin' ta pay me for takin' out Samus?"

Cyrus could scarcely believe his ears. He had known that Pigma Dengar was a money grubbing swine, but this was absurd. He was already paying the Pig-like Lylatian more than his usual fee; and missions like this were the reason he had done so in the first place. "What I have already paid you!" Cyrus roared. "You're already getting close to twice your normal fee."

"Yeah, but this is Samus Aran you're talkin' about. I heard that she had a bounty of three million gold credits or somethin' like that, dead."

"If she dies, _you_ will get the full bounty, along with whoever else survives. That said, if the entire squadron is destroyed, you'll still only get the three million gold credits," Cyrus told him.

The silence that came in over the comm indicated that the mercenary was still thinking it over. Eventually, Pigma responded, "Okay, I'll do it. But I better get every copper penny that is comin' ta me."

"Good," Cyrus said in a satisfied tone. "Inform me should you run into Samus and manage to kill her."

Pigma gave no response and the channel was closed from the other side. Cyrus grimaced. He hated having to work with selfish scum like Pigma, but the mercenary's skill was undeniable. He had, after all, once been a member of Star Fox, and later, Star Wolf. One needed to be a good pilot to be able to fly in those teams.

After finishing his conversation with Pigma, he turned to Mercury and told him, "Tell the others to press the attack now. We need to establish a clear foothold in Goldenrod City. Even with the attacks in Cherrygrove City inflicting losses to the enemy, I don't think that we'll be able to maintain this momentum for long. We need a clear base of operations if we are to launch a massive attack into the region."

"Understood, sir."

"Also, call in the other Team Galactic executives. Once we find the Sinjoh Ruins, I want to be able to get there as quickly as possible. In addition, set aside some Galactic Federation assets to help get us there quickly. Should Pigma fail in killing Samus, President Richardson, and Captain Falcon, I want to have some protection in my journey to the Sinjoh Ruins."

"Yes, sir," Mercury responded.

"One more thing," Cyrus added. "Get a dozen or so Techno Knights and have them assist in the capture of Mount Coronet, now. I want the Space Pirates there dead."

"Yes, sir," Mercury responded with a sadistic grin. As Mercury went about his work, Cyrus merely stood by and watched as the massive force of troops, tanks, mechs, and fighters advanced into Goldenrod City. He could already see the tanks and fighters of the Earth military forces coming out to face off against his forces.

Meanwhile, Samus piloted the Heavy Assault Shuttle through Earth's atmosphere, watching the sensors closely to see if there were any signs of pursuit ships that had launched from Orbital Ring Eight before its destruction, or if there were any enemy ships that were coming to intercept them. She hoped that the IFF codes of her ship still identified it as friendly to the Federation forces that were in control of much of Earth. That brought about another problem. If the IFF codes were still broadcasting her as a Federation shuttle, there was a good chance that any Earth fighters that happened upon the shuttle would shoot it down, thinking that they were the enemy. She quickly checked here sensors and found no signs of any fighters, Federation or Earth, approaching. She then focused on piloting the shuttle once more as she turned to Captain Falcon and said, "Keep an eye on the sensors and tell me if anyone takes an interest in us."

"Got it," the other bounty responded.

The shuttle continued through the atmosphere on its journey towards the Radio Tower with no signs of any pursuit or any interest being paid to it by either side of the conflict. Reports came in and appeared on several monitors in front of Samus. She gave them passing glances, but they were merely updates on how various battles were going. So far, Cyrus's forces were making slow to moderate progress in the Johto and Sinnoh regions of Japan, practically ignoring Kanto or Hoenn, though Federation forces were suffering obscene casualties in the process. The invasion of Unova had stalled and the Federation forces were gradually being pushed back with the help of two Legendary Pokémon called Reshiram and Zekrom. In other reports, most of Europe was already under the control of the Galactic Federation, along with South America, Australia, and Africa. Only Asia and North America were providing any meaningful resistance, with most of the victories for Earth coming in the U.S.A. and Russia.

After she had looked over the reports, she focused back on her course heading. The computer indicated that she was still at least ten minutes away from the Radio Tower. After a moment, she heard Captain Falcon call over to her, and to the others in the cockpit cabin, "We've got company! I'm detecting a quartet of fighters coming from our starboard side."

Samus looked out the window into the distance and was barely able to make out four small dots in the distance. Checking her sensors, she found that they were Rapier-class short-ranged air-and-space superiority starfighters currently in use solely by the Galactic Federation. They had originally been developed by a variety of Earth colonies as short-range, mass-produced fighters along with the Epée, the interceptor, and the Claymore, the bomber. Their primary purpose was system defense against attack until Galactic Federation forces could arrive to assist. Despite their lack of faster-than-light drives and limited roles, they were still quite capable in the roles they were designed for.

Captain Falcon's voice soon rang out again, "Their weapons are hot!"

That was no surprise. Earth was a war zone; there was no way any ship would enter the atmosphere without being either weapons hot, shields up, or both, regardless of the side said ship was on. The comm soon chimed and a voice came in over the radio saying, "Unknown shuttle, state your identification and cargo immediately."

Samus and Captain Falcon glanced at one another uneasily, and then back at President Richardson and General Hastings, before Samus said, "I can't make that response, they'll instantly recognize my voice."

"Don't look at me," Richardson retorted.

"I'd be recognized as well," Hastings added. "As would Captain Falcon."

President Richardson then went to the rear cabin of the shuttle and bellowed, "I need one Marine or Army volunteer to come to the cockpit…" but he was cut off by a thud and shaking of the shuttle. "They're firing!" cried Captain Falcon.

"Never mind," President Richardson told the troopers in the rear cabin. He went to join Samus and Captain Falcon and saw that the shields were still holding at ninety-two percent. Samus was already initiating evasive maneuvers as a pair of energy bolts flashed past the underside of the shuttle. Several more bolts flew past the cockpit before the shuttle shuddered again. The shields dropped to eighty-eight percent, indicating that only a single bolt had managed to tag the shuttle.

Samus quickly took control of the weapons systems and checked to see the loadout. She had hoped to find that the shuttle was equipped with air-to-air missiles, but found that it was merely equipped with air-to-surface missiles. Fortunately, though, they still had the rear-mounted twin energy cannons. She charged the cannons, which only took a single second to charge and once they had been charged, she activated a crosshairs on the screen in front of her. She told Captain Falcon, "Take the flight controls. I'll take care of the fighters."

"Got it," Falcon replied as Samus began to target the fighters. It was just like it was on her own gunship. She entered the data into the computer and the cannons began to swivel. However, as the crosshairs moved over the enemy fighters, the cannons did not fire. This was odd. The first thing she did was to check the cannons and see if they were functioning properly. Everything seemed to check out. She then grimaced as she figured that the Rapiers were likely using some form of jamming or other Electronic Countermeasures against the shuttle. This was confirmed when the sensor range of the shuttle was drastically reduced in an instant. The shuttle then lurched again with another hit. Checking the shields, she found that they were down to eighty percent. However, since the external cameras were still operational, she could use manual targeting to deal with the fighters.

She switched the cannons to manual control and began to zero in on them. While she had not used the manual setting to operate rear-mounted energy cannons since she had been in the Federation Academy, she had been quite capable when she was younger, and was quite comfortable with using these cannons manually. A joystick popped up from the console and she used it to adjust the aim of the cannons. The cannons' crosshairs soon moved over one of the Rapiers and once it did, she pulled the trigger. Scarlet lances of energy erupted from the cannons and blew a hole straight through the center of the lead Rapier, the Rapier's armor doing little to stop the energy blast. The Rapier then listed to the side and began an involuntary dive towards the ground. Samus did not stop to see the fighter crash, or if the pilot managed to eject in time, merely focusing on the second fighter.

The Rapier flight broke formation with the fall of their leader, and they formed a large triangle in the air, with one fighter above the shuttle, and two below it. They continued to pepper the shuttle with energy fire, but the shuttle was able to maneuver away from many of the blasts. However, a few managed to get through and the shuttle's shields were taken down to sixty-four percent. However, a moment later, Samus zeroed in on the Rapier above the shuttle and opened fire. The lances of energy tore into this fighter and blew its rear half off. The forward half dove into the ground, where it exploded, but not before the pilot managed to eject. Not stopping to give the other fighters a chance to react, she quickly lowered the elevation of the cannons and targeted the two remaining Rapiers. Spraying energy fire towards the two fighters, she managed to wing one of the fighters. The hit took off the wing of the Rapier and the wounded fighter began to descend towards the ground, unable to stay aloft. Before dealing the deathblow to the wounded fighter, though, the bounty hunter targeted the final fighter and unleashed a torrent of energy bolts upon it. The scarlet bolts tore through the starfighter and sent the ruined hulk falling to the ground. After that fighter had been dealt with, Samus turned her attention to the wounded Rapier. However, any further action against the fighter was unnecessary since the pilot had just ejected from the craft and was gliding down to the planet via his parachute.

After the four Rapiers had been dealt with, Samus checked the sensors once more, hoping that no signals had been sent to the enemy. The sensors indicated the skies were clear for the moment. Once they felt as if they were in the clear, Samus resumed piloting duties from Captain Falcon.

Two minutes later, Captain Falcon's voice rang out once more. "We've got another contact coming in fast!"

Samus risked a glance at the sensors and saw the small blip approaching fast. As it got closer, her curiosity turned to apprehension as both she and Captain Falcon recognized the ship as an Arwing fighter. "Put as much power to rear shields and to the rear energy cannons as possible," she directed. She knew that where there was one Arwing, three more were likely to follow. Alarm klaxons were already going off as the Arwing, which was still ten or more kilometers away, was trying to lock onto the shuttle. The sensors also detected a rise in energy readings in one of its weapons ports. A massive surge of energy was then launched towards the shuttle, but the surge detonated well away from the ship before it could be threatened.

After a few seconds, the radio came online, and the image of a pig's face appeared. Samus recognized the face as belonging to Pigma Dengar. "Well, well, it looks like I'm gonna get a ton of cash for this," he sneered. "Killin' Samus Aran, Captain Falcon, President Richardson, and General Hastings'll give me great leverage to get even more bounty money from Cyrus."

"Too bad you'll never be able to spend it," Samus retorted over the radio.

"Huh?" Pigma asked, being taken off guard by Samus's comment. "Whadaya mean I'll never be able to spend it?"

"You've undoubtedly heard from the humans of Earth that if Cyrus accomplishes his objectives, that he'll just destroy the universe anyway. You can't take your money with you when you die."

"Then I'll just kill him after he pays me and before he destroys the universe," Pigma concluded. With that, he closed the channel.

The Arwing was now within visual range and Samus got a clear view of the fighter from the rear cameras. The fighter was streamlined, though it looked noticeably heavier than the more recent designs of the Arwing had. However, it also physically looked more durable and able to fly in the atmosphere should something go wrong with the G-diffuser. She checked the analysis of the fighter and saw that it was armed with two laser cannons, which could charge into a single high-powered homing laser stronger than several bursts from the twin laser cannons, as well as a Smart Bomb launcher. The analysis indicated that Pigma only had one Smart Bomb, though, at this time. She soon heard Captain Falcon asked, "Do you want me to take the controls while you take weapons?"

Samus looked back and shook her head. Seeing that the Arwing did not have any strong ECM systems, she would not need to manually control the energy cannons. She could focus on flying the ship as well as dealing with Pigma. She told him, "You take control of the tactical systems. I'll concentrate on flying the shuttle."

Falcon nodded as Samus gripped the control stick and pulled to the left just as Pigma let loose with his first barrage of laser fire. Green bolts of energy flashed to the right of the ship as Pigma missed his initial shots. Setting the rear cannons to automatic, the cannons' targeting computer tracked the fighter. As Pigma fired on the shuttle, though, he was performing barrel rolls. As soon as he performed such a roll, though, the sensors indicated that a second shield appeared over the starfighter. Samus had heard about these shields and that they could deflect almost any pulsed energy weapons fire regardless of power if the blast was either A: not too large, or B: the pulses were short enough in length. She watched as the cannons targeted the fighter and fired. Scarlet energy pulses erupted from the cannons and streaked back towards Pigma's Arwing. However, he had managed to raise a barrel roll shield and managed to deflect the energy lances. The cannons continued to fire, though, and one of the bolts managed to score a hit on the Arwing. However, the hit inflicted minimal damage to Pigma's shields. Samus quickly checked the tactical screen and saw that barely a sliver of energy had been removed. She would have to score dozens of more hits before the fighter would be taken down.

The shuttle lurched again and she performed evasive maneuvers, knowing that while there was no way for the shuttle to be able to outmaneuver the starfighter, she hoped that it would be able to avoid enough energy fire to be able to take down Pigma's Arwing. Her hopes quickly faded when the lock-on alarms blared and the ambient light turned red as the screens all glowed red in warning of the enemy ship locking onto the shuttle. Samus prayed that the weapon that would be used was merely a Charged Laser, for a Smart Bomb was like a tactical nuclear or matter-antimatter weapon and would likely destroy the shuttle with a single hit. She continued to perform evasive maneuvers as the fighter continued to close in on the shuttle. After a few seconds, Pigma unleashed the Charged Laser towards the shuttle. Samus did her best to maneuver the shuttle away from the energy ball as it homed in on the shuttle. She even took control of the rear energy cannons to try to detonate the ball before it struck, but the ball traveled too quickly and took more than one hit to take down. After sustaining two direct hits, it crashed into the shuttle, causing the ship to lurch forward. Sparks erupted from an unoccupied terminal in the corner of the cockpit cabin and the bounty hunter checked the extent of the damage. The tactical screen told her that the rear shields had been collapsed by the Charged Laser and the aft energy cannons had sustained damage from the strike, too much for the auto-repair systems to fix. The hull damage, itself, was minor, but the rear of the craft was now unprotected; and that meant that Pigma could take his time shooting down the shuttle.

Samus was not ready to give up just yet, though. She glanced over at Captain Falcon and asked, "Does this shuttle have a dorsal hatch?"

As Samus was shifting the power of the shields from forward to rear as well as transferring as much power from the damaged weapons systems to the shields in the hope that they would hold for a little while. Captain Falcon looked over the ship's schematics and found that it did, indeed, have a dorsal hatch. "Yes," he called over to Samus.

"Then take the controls," she directed. "I'm going out to take on Pigma." She then rose from her chair and went to the back of the cabin.

President Richardson's eyes went wide as she rose. "By yourself?" he blurted, before she stepped through the door to the rear cabin. "Can your arm cannon's weaponry even damage an Arwing?"

"We're about to find out," Samus replied. Inwardly, she felt as if there was a good chance that if her Power Missile could tag an Arwing, that it could inflict damage to the fighter since it was a miniature matter-antimatter weapon and was powerful enough to take down at least a Techno Squire. It was better than nothing, though. She then stepped through the door and went to the rear cabin.

Once inside the rear cabin, she went over to a red lever encased in glass on the wall and pulled it down. As she did so, a small, round hatch opened on the ceiling that was wide enough to fit two normal unarmored humans walking abreast. Once the hatch opened, air began to flow out of the cabin, prompting the Federation soldiers to activate their magnetic boots so that they would not be pulled out of the shuttle. She went over to the small hatch and jumped out of the hatch and landed on the shuttle's external hull. She quickly pushed a button on the hatch and closed it and stepped towards the rear of the shuttle.

Once she had arrived at the rear of the shuttle, where the damaged energy cannons were located, she proceeded to scan the skies for Pigma's Arwing. She quickly spotted him coming up from below. He sprayed the ship with laser fire and managed to score some more hits. The shuttle's strength appeared on the top portion of Samus's HUD and she found that the energy blasts had taken the newly reinforced rear shields down to sixty-six percent. She grimaced. One of the projectors or generators may have sustained damage as well, for the shields were weaker in their durability this time around. Either that, or one of the blasts happened to strike an unshielded section of the shuttle and the damage to that section had spilled over onto the shields as well. She charged her Wave Beam and fired a Charged Shot at Pigma's Arwing. As she fired, she also took this opportunity to scan his Arwing. The scan read: _Object – Arwing. The Arwing is the primary planetary and space superiority fighter for the Star Fox Team. This particular Arwing, piloted by the traitor, Pigma Dengar, was the first in the Arwing series, sporting two laser cannons, a Charged Homing Laser projector, and a Smart Bomb launcher capable of holding five Smart Bombs in total. The next model increased this number to nine. This current Arwing is capable of performing tight loops and Immelman turns, though performing such advanced maneuvers as tightly as it does costs energy and a boost meter shows how much energy is left for a scramjet boost, loop, or Immelman. In addition, the shields of an Arwing are powerful and it can take significant damage before being shot down._

After she finished reading the scan, the status monitor of the Arwing appeared and she noticed that a sliver of its bar was missing, mainly due to the damage the fighter had sustained from the rear cannon of the shuttle. She watched as her Charged Wave Beam struck the Arwing in the center of the craft. She checked the shield bar of the Arwing and noticed a small amount of energy vanish from the meter. However, it was not nearly enough for it to make the Wave Beam a viable weapon. This was bad because she had a feeling that it was the electrical and shield penetrating nature of the Wave Beam that allowed it to score the damage on the fighter's shields. She did not think that her other beams would be nearly as effective, but she felt as if she had to try. She only had a finite amount of missiles. She switched to her Plasma Beam and charged it, targeting Pigma's fighter. Once the blast was charged, she unleashed it at the fighter but, just as she had suspected, the Plasma Beam was unable to inflict any real damage to the shields. She promptly switched back to her Power Beam and decided that it would be best to go with a Super Missile to see just how damaging _that_ would be. She proceeded to charge her Power Beam and ready her Super Missile.

As she had been firing her weapons and preparing her Super Missile, Pigma had not been idle. He targeted Samus and locked onto her, charging his Homing Laser, an orb of green energy appearing over the nose of the craft. However, it was not the laser that he had intended to use. Instead, it was his Smart Bomb. He wanted to take out both the shuttle and Samus in one strike. Once he had locked onto the shuttle, the glowing green ball of energy disappeared and he pushed the button to fire his Smart Bomb a split second after Samus unleashed her Super Missile at his craft. The Super Missile leapt out of her arm cannon and streaked straight towards the Arwing at a blistering pace. Almost immediately after Samus fired her Super Missile, Pigma deployed his Smart Bomb. The Smart Bomb emerged from the nose of the craft and a trail of red exhaust emerged from the bomb for the instant it flew before it was hit by Samus's Super Missile.

Upon colliding with the Super Missile, both explosives detonated, with the massive blast radius of the Smart Bomb expanding outward and engulfing Pigma's Arwing. The massive wave of fire and energy washed over Pigma's fighter and Samus could only watch as the shield bar of the Arwing decreased at a frightening rate. The shuttle, however, was quite safe since it was flying away from the explosion and the wave of energy did not expand fast enough to catch up to the shuttle before it dissipated. Samus could only smile at the sight as Pigma's shield bar continued to decrease. After his fighter emerged from the explosion, smoking but still functional and able to fight, he had lost more than half of his shields. Suddenly, Samus was disappointed that Pigma had only come with one Smart Bomb. Still, she still had her own Super Missiles, and even Power Missiles should they be necessary. She felt as if she had enough firepower to deal with him.

She charged another Super Missile as Pigma went to strafe the shuttle with another barrage of laser fire. Captain Falcon must have been keeping an eye on the battle, for he quickly swerved the shuttle down and to the right, causing it to overshoot the shuttle to the left. Pigma dove along with the shuttle, following it and continuing to spray laser bursts at the shuttle, only one of the bolts managing to score a hit on the shuttle, taking the shields down to fifty-eight percent. The shuttle shuddered under the impact, shaking Samus a bit, but she did not lose her missile's lock on Pigma's fighter. She unleashed the Super Missile and watched as it flew towards the fighter. Pigma performed a loop in an attempt to evade the missile. While a loop would have been able to throw off another Arwing's Charged Laser shot or a Smart Bomb, it was insufficient to throw off the targeting systems of the Super Missile. The missile scored a direct hit on the fuselage of the Arwing, causing it to shudder a bit and give it pause. However, only a small amount of energy was lost to the Arwing's shields, likely equal to a two or three individual Hyper Laser blasts. Even with the damage Pigma's fighter had already sustained, she doubted that she would be able to inflict enough damage to take down his fighter before he managed to inflict enough damage to the shuttle to take it down. And since the shuttle was engaged in what amounted to a dogfight, the shuttle was still a ways away from the Radio Tower. She was not out of options, though. She still had her Power Missiles.

Given the damage that her Super Missile had managed to inflict on the fighter, as well as the damage that the Smart Bomb's detonation had inflicted, she suspected that her Power Missile would be enough to take down Pigma's Arwing. She only hoped that the shuttle would not be taken down with him. Samus then opened a channel to Captain Falcon and said, "Falcon, divert every ounce of energy you can into the shuttle's shields and shift as much power as you can to the rear. I'm going to use a Power Missile and if Pigma closes the gap too quickly, we might get caught in the blast."

"I hear you, Samus. I'm already on it!" came the response.

Samus checked the shield bar of the shuttle and rapidly saw it fill up. Once it had gone above one hundred percent, she began charging her Power Beam. As she did so, Pigma strafed the shuttle once more. The reinforced shields, however, were able to withstand the assault suffering only minimal damage. She prepared the Power Missile and the arm cannon opened up. The red tip of the missile appeared in the center of the arm cannon as she locked onto Pigma's fighter. Once she was locked in, she unleashed it towards Pigma. Again, the Lylatian humanoid Pig performed a loop in an attempt to break the missile's lock. Just as with the Super Missile, his attempts were unsuccessful. The Power Missile continued to follow his Arwing until it scored a direct hit on the underside of his craft just as it was finishing its loop.

The Power Missile detonated and a wave of energy formed upon its detonation. The explosion completely engulfed Pigma's Arwing and Samus watched as the shield bar decreased until it vanished completely. After a few seconds, Pigma emerged from the epicenter of the Power Missile's explosion, his Arwing in flames, smoke trailing the craft. Samus could hear Pigma's cry over her comm, "Noooo! My beautiful reward and bounty. Arrggh!"

She continued to watch as Pigma did his best to control the craft as it fell to the Earth. As it continued to descend, she did not see Pigma eject. It took a few seconds for the canopy to open and when it did, Pigma jumped out of the fighter and fell to the Earth. Samus took her eyes off of the doomed fighter and turned her gaze to the falling Pigma, who seemed to be struggling to deploy his parachute, or whatever other device he had that would stop or slow his fall. She watched as his parachute eventually opened and slowed his descent to the ground. For a split second, she was tempted to fire a single shot from her Power Beam to either take out the Pig, or the parachute and let the mercenary fall to his death, screaming and cursing all the way down, since he was such a despicable person; almost as bad as the Space Pirates. She leveled her arm cannon at the stricken mercenary and was about to fire, but at the last moment, she hesitated. Even though Pigma was evil, she did not want to kill someone like this; not even someone as evil as Pigma. The only one she would do something like this to was Ridley, and mostly because of the power that he possessed.

Once the battle was over, Samus scanned the skies once more for any signs of Federation fighters. When her scans came back negative, she opened a channel to Captain Falcon and asked, "What's our ETA to the Radio Tower?"

"Five minutes," the captain responded. "I'm no longer detecting the Arwing. Did you take him down?"

"Yes," Samus answered. "Pigma's down, but he's not out yet. He managed to escape his fighter before it crashed. I'm going to keep watch up here since the rear cannon's still out."

"Fine by me," Falcon responded. "Thanks for the update," The channel then closed and Samus stood by, scanning the area behind the shuttle. While it would not take much longer to reach the Radio Tower, she wanted to make sure that nothing else happened along the way to the tower.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13:

The Heavy Assault Shuttle continued on its way towards New York City at its maximum atmospheric speed, which was about mach three. As it continued towards New York City, sensors started showing signs of large numbers of air and spacecraft, in addition to numerous ground-based defenses, along with massive numbers of ground troops attacking the Earth defenders. Air and space fighters were darting back and forth in dogfights, and other, larger, gunships were unleashing torrents of energy fire and missiles upon ground weapons emplacements and ground forces. So far, it looked to Samus as if the Earth's forces were holding their own against the Federation aggressors, but she also noticed more squadrons of assault shuttles and transports coming down to relieve the attacking forces, while there were few places for the defenders to retreat to, and little help forthcoming as long as Earth's planetary shields were still up, preventing Admiral Dane and Adam Malkovich from sending down Federation in Exile ground troops of their own. As they flew, she continued to be on alert, making sure that no enemy fighters came their way. So far, the soldiers on both sides of the conflict were too concerned with each other to worry about a new arrival that was not taking any hostile action towards them.

After a few more minutes, the city of New York, or what was left of it, was within their sight. At first, it looked as if the city was still intact, for almost all of the skyscrapers were still standing. It was not until one took a closer look that they noticed that the windows of many of the buildings were blown out and that the streets and subway tunnels were lined with wreckage and bodies from the many battles that were being fought all throughout the city. Samus saw several Federation Marines and Army Troopers fall to a hail of energy fire from their Earth and Federation in Exile counterparts down in the streets. She also noticed several Earth atmospheric fighters engaging a squadron of enemy Rapiers and managing to deal significant damage to the squadron due to them having more missiles than the Rapiers, and that their missiles were air-to-air, while the Rapiers carried a combination of air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles.

The shuttle began to slow down and Samus made certain to be on the lookout for any fighters or other ships that were taking an interest in the shuttle as they made their approach to the Radio Tower. So far, they were drawing no attention from the defenders. She looked out into the distance and saw the massive spire of the Tower standing high over the rest of the city. So far, there seemed to be no fighting close to the tower, though she suspected that one of the reasons for that was the fact that there were numerous tanks and massive mechs that resembled Gundams from the old Earth animé series. Despite giant mecha and robots practically being a genre in and of itself in Earth fiction, the militaries of Earth had never embraced giant mecha as a viable battle platform. They required a great deal of resources to build, were maintenance-intensive, were unstable and could easily be toppled and mission-killed by taking out their legs, and they simply required too many resources to overcome their glaring weaknesses. In essence, they were far too expensive, and for the cost of one mech, a dozen jump and hover-capable tanks could be built, with deflector shields, and high-powered energy and projectile weapons. And such tanks, alone could possibly match a mech one-on-one. The only advantages that the mech had were their greater ability to see and shoot over obstacles, something that a tank could do with indirect fire from bomb launchers and other physical payload launchers; and their psychological effects. However, most battle-hardened soldiers were not very fearful of a monstrous, towering humanoid mech. Instead, they would laugh and proceed to shoot said mech in the knees with their missile launchers or plasma cannons, toppling the mechanical beast.

As the shuttle made its approach to the Radio Tower, Samus noticed the mecha begin to take action and point their incredibly large rifles towards the ship. This was Captain Falcon's cue to power the weapons and ready the missiles. He opened a channel to Samus and told her, "We're going in. Keep an eye on our surroundings and make sure that no fighters target us."

"I copy," she responded.

Captain Falcon shifted the shields so that they were balanced between the fore and aft arcs. After that, he targeted the closest of the mechs and opened fire with the shuttle's heavy energy cannons. Scarlet energy pulses lashed out at the line of mechs closest to the shuttle and before the massive humanoid machines could fire on the shuttle, they were pierced by the energy beams. The mechs fell backwards onto the ground, crushing any unfortunate Federation Marine or Army Trooper that did not manage to get out from under the path of their fall. Falcon then zeroed in on the other mechs and input their data into the ship's targeting computer. Once he had targeted all of the remaining mechs, he proceeded to unleash a barrage of missiles from the missile launchers. The missiles rocketed from the launchers and homed in on their targets. Upon striking the mechs, the missiles detonated and blew massive holes into the chests of several of the mechs. The others were completely blown apart. The mechs that "merely" had the holes blown into their chests fell backwards to the ground. Falcon then strafed the fallen mechs with energy fire to make sure that they would never rise again.

Once the mechs surrounding the building had been dealt with, Falcon targeted the tanks and other emplacement weapons, which were now firing on the assault shuttle and filling the air with energy bolts and flak. He targeted the tanks surrounding the building and unleashed another volley of missiles. The rockets fell among the tanks and blew them apart with single blasts. As he was destroying the tanks, he noticed that several of the tanks were Landmasters. Given that they had been destroyed with single hits, he figured that they had been the mass-produced variant that had been designed for the Cornerian Army, rather than the ones built for the Star Fox Team. After the first line of tanks had been destroyed, Falcon strafed the second line of tanks and emplacement weapons surrounding the building. Raking the tanks with energy bolts, numerous tanks were either destroyed or put out of commission. Soon, troops armed with shoulder rocket launchers emerged from the Radio Tower and targeted the shuttle. Falcon calmly centered the targeting reticle over the small team of missile troopers and opened fire. The blast gouged a massive hole into the concrete and sent the troopers flying through the air. They landed a few meters away from their launch points and ceased to move. Falcon then strafed another group of Federation troopers that had emerged from another of the entrances. Realizing that there were a large number of troops in the tower, he spoke over the radio to Samus, telling her, "Samus, it looks like we may be up here for a while. They're sending out a large contingent of security forces."

Samus peered down at the ground and saw the shuttle opening up with its anti-personnel support cannons and saw that for each soldier that was being mowed down by the shuttle's cannons, that three troopers would emerge. Since the forces inside the tower likely drastically outnumbered the platoon that was onboard the shuttle. Given the number of troops that were emerging, she suspected that there was at least a battalion of security troopers. Seeing that it would take some time to clear the area, she told Captain Falcon, "There's a window close to the landing pad on the side of the Radio Tower. Get me as close to that area of the tower as possible. I'm going to jump through the window and into the transmitter room. Even if I miss the window for the control room, I'll still only be a level or two down. I should be able to fight my way up to the control room, and you can use the landing pad to quickly drop off some troops for storming the tower as well."

"Are you sure?" Falcon asked over the comm. He was uneasy about taking the shuttle so close and also leaving it without any rear weapons should the security forces call in fighter support for the building."

"It's the best bet we've got at the moment," Samus answered. "We're going to need half of the troops in the shuttle for taking over and holding the Capitol Building in Washington D.C., and they've got at least a battalion of security troopers guarding the tower. If I can gain control of the transmitter inside the tower, I can shut down the jamming signal and hack the computer so that it can't be reactivated. I could even use it to jam the transmissions of Cyrus's troops."

It took Captain Falcon a few moments to consider Samus's plan, but with both President Richardson and General Hastings behind him nodding, he said, "Okay, Samus. We'll do it your way. Get ready. I won't be able to hover near the entrance for long."

"You won't have to," Samus replied, as she got ready to jump off the shuttle.

She watched the ground as the shuttle flew around the perimeter of the tower in search of the landing pad. She focused on the windows for the tower and began to run towards the edge of the shuttle. Once she reached the edge, she jumped off the shuttle as it was making its final approach towards the landing pad and began to spin, activating her Screw Attack. She plowed through the window and found herself inside what appeared to be an unoccupied office. There were cubicles, work desks, and computers all around the large room.

As she stepped forward, her sensors indicated the presence of another lifeform entering the room. They soon told her of a surge of power and the borders of the map in the upper right corner of her HUD turned red. She dove out of the way as a yellow crackling ball of electricity sailed over her head by inches. The ball slowly turned towards her and she continued to flee from it, guiding it towards a work desk, which it hit and promptly reduced to dust. Samus instantly recognized the electrical blast as having been a Volt Driver blast, and she suspected that the one who had fired it was none other than Kanden, one of the two bounty hunters she had encountered in the Alimbic Cluster that had not yet made an appearance. She was not disappointed when the enemy bounty hunter emerged and Samus recognized it as being Kanden. The large Enoema, a yellow-green being with a muscular torso with glowing yellow circles, broad shoulders, normal looking arms and legs, a segmented neck and a worm-like head and mouth with four yellow eyes, stared at Samus. She quickly noticed the stinger-like weapon on his right wrist, almost certainly the Volt Driver. "At last," he hissed in a satisfied and sadistic tone. "I get to prove my superiority by killing the so-called ultimate bounty hunter."

Samus ignored his comment and activated her Scan Visor, wanting to scan her enemy to see if he had made any upgrades to his armor and/or weaponry in the years since she had let fought him. The scan soon came back, reading, _Bioform – Kanden. Subject is a genetically altered and enhanced Enoema. The engineering process, while it has enhanced his physical abilities, has destroyed his mind. An electrical field surrounds the hunter Kanden. Analysis suggests voltages comparable to that found in lightning storms. Kanden's primary weapon is the Volt Driver, which can fire charged blasts that are capable of disrupting the Combat Visor_.

She proceeded to focus on Kanden as he prepared to fire another blast from his Volt Driver. She grimaced, remembering that the Battlehammer had been strong against Kanden and others using the Volt Driver. However, since she did not have the Battlehammer, she would have to make due with her other weapons. Also, since the Radio Tower was key to assisting Admiral Dane's fleet up in orbit, she also did not want to risk damaging the tower, so using her Power Missiles and Power Bombs was out of the question, too. One advantage that she had over the Enoema, though, was the fact that her suit did not have a weak spot on its head, where Kanden did. Since she wanted to deal with Kanden as quickly as possible, and suspected that he would be strong against the electrical variant of the Wave Beam that she possessed, she switched to her Plasma Beam, the strongest of her beams in terms of raw power.

As soon as Kanden peered around a cubicle in search of his quarry, he was met with a series of uncharged Plasma Beam blasts straight to his head. The beam blasts inflicted noticeable damage to the Enoema and caused him to duck back behind the cubicle. The cubicle, however, provided no cover from Samus's Plasma Beam as she unleashed a vicious volley of orange-red blasts Kanden's way, scoring more headshots on the bounty hunter. Kanden returned fire, but Samus's evasiveness meant that she was able to avoid most of his blasts, with only a couple managing to hit. As he had been firing his own uncharged blasts, though, Samus had been charging her Plasma Beam. The orange-red ball of energy appeared over her arm cannon and once it was fully charged, she targeted Kanden's head. She knew the risk, since if she missed, she would have wasted the shot, but she felt that she could hit him. She unleashed the charged blast and it managed to score a direct hit on Kanden's head, taking out about one fifth of his total energy. Kanden recoiled from the blast and roared in pain and rage. "You won't kill me that easily, Hunter!" he cried.

He switched to his missiles and once he had managed to find Samus, he let fly with a missile. However, since his missiles did not have a targeting system, they were merely dumb-fired missiles. Samus moved to her left and easily avoided the projectile, which sailed past her and struck the wall, blowing it out upon its detonation. Samus returned fire with a Charged Plasma shot. This one merely managed to tag Kanden in the torso, rather than the head and, thus, only inflicted half the damage the first Charged Plasma shot had. She continued to fire on Kanden with uncharged Plasma Beam shots, scoring hits on his arms, legs, torso, and even his head. With each hit, she noticed Kanden's life bar decrease little by little. It was not long before almost half of Kanden's life bar had been depleted.

Kanden, realizing that if the fight continued down its current path, that he would lose, he decided to transform into his alternate form, the Stinglarva, a large, yellow-green segmented worm-like creature. His Stinglarva form had the ability to detach its regenerating tail and use it as a homing missile of sorts against enemies. Since he had hidden himself when he transformed, and was smaller, he was able to hide from Samus for a brief moment, which he used to deploy his homing stinger. The stinger on his tail detached itself from the rest of his body and glided across the floor in search of Samus. Since the tail's stinger employed a form of stealth technology, Samus was not able to detect the stinger until it was too late. She heard the tail homing in on her, but could not identify where it was coming from, so she figured that the best thing she could do was jump into the air. As she jumped into the air, the tail exploded. The explosion engulfed almost half of the entire office floor and blew out several windows and threw up wood, metal, and debris. The force of the blast also threw Samus through the air and she landed several meters from her original point of departure from the ground. As she was sailing, she reoriented herself, flipped, and managed to land on her feet, skidding to a halt. Checking her own shield status, she found that the stinger missile had only taken off ten units of energy from her Energy Tank.

She scanned the floor for any signs of Kanden. She soon heard a skittering noise behind her and moved to her right. Passing just to her left was the Stinglarva form of Kanden, the stinger on his tail nearly completely regenerated. Seeing that she would not be able to keep up with him in her normal form, she transformed into her Morph Ball form and rolled after the enemy hunter. Using her Boost Ball, she was able to catch up to Kanden just as his Stinglarva stinger had regenerated. Knowing that his stinger missile would inflict significant damage with a direct hit, she broke off her initial pursuit of him and rolled behind a wall that took her down a corridor behind the office. The stinger missile, following Samus, though heedless of any obstacles, struck the wall and detonated prematurely, blowing a large hole in the wall, but inflicting no damage to Samus.

Feeling that it would still be too dangerous to use her Power Bombs here, Samus checked her sensors for Kanden's location. She noticed him coming up fast from behind. She decided to surprise him by laying down two Morph Ball Bombs, keeping a third to propel her into the air at the end. She laid down her first two bombs and the genetically enhanced bounty hunter ran collided with the bombs. Their detonations sent out blue waves of energy and inflicted minor to moderate damage to Kanden's shields and armor per hit. They were nowhere near as powerful as a Charged Plasma Beam blast, but they were stronger than an uncharged blast.

Using her final Morph Ball Bomb, before their ammunition regenerated, she propelled herself into the air. As soon as her final Morph Ball Bomb detonated, her meter of three Morph Ball Bombs filled up once more. She guided her flight path to Kanden's Stinglarva head and landed right on top of it. As she did so, she deployed another Morph Ball Bomb. The bomb instantly detonated upon contact with Kanden's skin and the explosion not only inflicted damage to Kanden, but also propelled Samus into the air. She then landed on Kanden again and repeated the process once more. She continued to deploy a bomb on Kanden, use the blast to propel herself into the air, and land back on him in order to avoid any reprisals from the Enoema. Kanden was not out of options yet, though. He still had his regenerating stinger missile. He detached his tail and proceeded to have it zero in on Samus, and him. _He_ was immune to its own blast, while he suspected that Samus would not be. The tail did not travel far before it exploded, propelling him into the air, and Samus through the air. She suffered only an indirect hit and, thus, only lost ten more points of energy from her Energy Tanks. She was still in good condition, which was more than could be said of Kanden. Kanden had been taken down to less than one third his original health.

She transformed back to normal and landed on her feet, charging her Plasma Beam and taking aim at Kanden, who was doing his best to flee Samus. She continued to follow his movement and once her beam was fully charged, she let fly with the blast. The Charged Plasma shot scored a direct hit on Kanden, inflicting more damage to him. Samus charged after him, ruthlessly blasting away at his Stinglarva form.

Knowing that he would not be able to defeat Samus in this form he, too, transformed back to normal and turned to face his enemy. When he rose to face Samus, he opened fire with his Volt Driver, unleashing a volley of uncharged blasts at Samus. She managed to dodge the first two blasts, but a few of the subsequent blasts managed to score a hit on her suit, taking out two units of energy per hit. Samus, wanting to end this battle quickly, and wanting to see whether or not Kanden was truly evil, switched to her Light Beam and opened fire on him. A single uncharged Light Beam blast erupted from her arm cannon and struck the enemy bounty hunter squarely in the chest. A wave of golden light erupted from the center of Kanden's mass and it washed over the bounty hunter, inflicting incredible pain on the Enoema. Just as she had suspected, Kanden was evil. Seeing that a noticeable portion of Kanden's remaining health was taken off by that single blast, she charged her Light Beam until a ball of golden energy surrounded the end of her arm cannon. As she charged her beam, Kanden charged his own Volt Driver, hoping to charge his beam faster than Samus could charge hers; all the while, he was quite evasive. However, Samus managed to charge her beam first and once she was ready, she went to target the Enoema. Since she was noticeably faster than the Enoema, in both speed, reaction time, and agility, she had no trouble tracking him and once she had drawn a bead on him, she unleashed her Light Beam upon Kanden.

The Charged Light Beam blast was more than sufficient to take him down. The blast instantly struck the bounty hunter and engulfed him in a blast of golden light. The Light blast disintegrated Kanden and in three seconds, no trace of the bounty hunter remained. Samus simply gave a sigh and took stock of herself. She still had more than a third of her first Energy Tank remaining, and nineteen other full Tanks. She was more than able to continue the mission. She proceeded to make her way out of the office and towards the nearest computer console, hoping to download a map to the tower so she could see how far from the main control room she was.

She found a computer console on the wall of the corridor that led to one of the stairwells and used her Scan Visor to hack the computer. The map soon appeared on the screen and she saw that she was two levels down from the main control center. Once she had gotten the information that she needed, she headed over to the nearest stairwell. She opened the door and went on through.

Inside the stairwell, she was immediately met by several Galactic Federation Army Troopers and two Galactic Federation Marines. Upon sighting her, the troopers opened fire on her, yelling, "It's Samus! Kill her!"

The bullets of the Army Troopers bounced off of her shields, but the energy blasts of the two Marines managed to inflict some damage. Samus was unconcerned about the Marines and Army Troopers and casually raised her arm cannon towards them and opened fire with her Light Beam. The uncharged Light Beam blasts struck the Army Troopers and promptly disintegrated them with single shots. The Marines were a little more resilient but they, too, fell to the firepower of the Light Beam with two or three uncharged blasts per Marine. Samus could only sigh as she made her way up the now unoccupied stairs, not knowing whether to be happy that more evil soldiers were killed, or sad that the soldiers were evil enough to have been killed by the Light Beam in the first place. She shook off the feeling and proceeded up the stairwell.

As she ascended the staircase, she heard an explosion outside and below the building. The tower promptly shuddered, as if a missile, bomb, or shell had struck the tower. She soon heard voices from above crying out over the sound of explosions outside. "Get every trooper outside at once! We're under attack!"

"Sir, Kanden's signature has gone dark and we're reading a breach to one of the windows," another voice called from inside one of the rooms.

"Get security down to the affected area at once!" the first voice cried. "We have to keep those Federation in Exile and human scum from getting up here."

Samus was tempted to yell, "Too late," but instead, she let her Light Beam do the talking as she ran into the squad of twelve Army Troopers coming down the stairs to support the troopers on the streets. These troopers, however, came better prepared to face off against stronger opposition and were armed with Freeze Guns and plasma cannon. Before many of them could open fire, though, Samus unleashed a volley of Light Beam blasts upon the troopers. Of the six that she managed to strike before they started to return fire, three were disintegrated in a flood of golden light, with two other suffering severe burns across their entire bodies, felling, but not killing, them, with one other suffering only a small, tingling sensation. To the sole trooper able to fight, Samus said, "Don't follow in their path. You haven't become like them yet."

He did not listen to her, though, and leveled his Freeze Gun on her. Samus responded by switching to her Wave Beam and firing a series of blasts at the trooper. The trooper cried out as electricity arced across his armor and he fell to the floor, writhing in agony, but still alive, and he would remain so.

The return fire from the still active troopers forced Samus to dive to the ground. Switching back to her Light Beam, she shot the rest of the troopers in rapid succession, scoring direct hits on all six remaining Army Troopers. Sadly, all six troopers were disintegrated by her Light Beam, indicating that they were, indeed, all evil. Before proceeding, she looked back down at the trooper who had survived her Light Beam blast, his visor hiding the shocked expression on his face. Before leaving, she told him, "The Light Beam only kills those who are evil. That is why you are still alive. Don't fall into the darkness as so many of your comrades have." With that final warning, she proceeded up the stairs and to the tower's main control center.

Upon reaching the door that led to the control center, she kicked it in with a single kick and scanned the area. Much as she had remembered, the room was full of computers, transmitters, and transceivers of all kinds. Upon her entry, several troopers wearing Galactic Federation Marine power armor, but with the stylized Gs of Team Galactic on their chests, rather than the Federation symbol, took aim and opened fire on her. Before they could get their shots off, Samus managed to shoot three of the troopers, utterly disintegrating them with single blasts. Apparently, these "Marines" were not equipped with shields. She quickly took cover behind an innocuous looking console as the other two surviving Team Galactic Marines got their shots off, their energy blasts sailing wide. They then focused their fire on her cover and shot several holes in the console that she was hiding behind. The officer in charge of the Radio Tower and its operations witnessed the troopers firing into the console, destroying it, and cried, "You idiots! You just destroyed one of our primary transceivers! Without that, we'll be limited in our ability to coordinate with the ground forces all over the Earth!"

The troopers did not care and they continued to fire on the console, hoping to take out Samus with it. The bounty hunter had other ideas as she emerged from cover and fired a series of Light Beam blasts at the troopers, annihilating them with single hits.

Once she was finished dealing with the security troopers, she cried out to the others, "Surrender now in the name of Earth and the Galactic Federation in Exile. If you do so now, you have my word that your lives will be spared."

The officer in charge, however, did not intend to surrender so quickly. He drew a pistol and opened fire on Samus. She danced to her right and let the blast sail past her and towards the door. She responded by switching to her Wave Beam and shooting the man once in the chest. The man writhed in pain as electricity sparked across his body and uniform. He dropped the pistol and fell to the floor, the pistol clattering on the ground. Samus then waved her arm cannon around the room, pointing to the others, telling them, "Surrender your weapons and leave now. If you do so, your lives will be spared."

The personnel inside the tower, most of who were Star Elves, Simians and other aliens glanced at one another, and then back at Samus. One of them then asked, "What guarantee do we have that you won't just kill us once our backs are turned?"

"Because I have the power to kill you all now, and there's not a thing you can do to stop me," she answered flatly. She did not like stating it in such plain and seemingly arrogant language, but she did not sugarcoat the position that they were in. "Besides, the others might not be so merciful. While they might not worry about facing a war crimes tribunal for taking out some Star Elves and Simians who have 'surrendered', they'll be concerned about going against someone like me if I protect you." She could hear footsteps coming up the stairs. "Give me your answer quickly," she warned them. "My support is coming here fast."

As soon as she had said those words, eighteen Federation in Exile Marine and Army Troopers stormed into the control center, along with Captain Falcon. They looked around the room, waving their weapons and saw that the personnel had already placed their weapons on the ground and had their hands behind their heads. "The situation is under control," Samus told them.

The soldiers nodded as they made their way towards the commanding officer and the rest of the personnel that were still inside the main control room and picked up the weapons that they had dropped. They then took each of them into custody, motioning for them to leave with several of the guards. The Federation in Exile troopers treated them well as they escorted them out of the room and to the makeshift detention area.

Not long after the room had been cleared, only Samus, Captain Falcon, and twelve Federation in Exile Marines and Army Troopers remained. After a few seconds, several technicians and engineers entered the room. When they saw Samus and the others turning towards them, they held up their hands, showing that they were both unarmed and non-hostile, and told them, "We're Federation in Exile Engineering Corps. We were part of the assault force to take back New York. Thanks for the help in taking down the defenses around the Radio Tower." The engineers and technicians then presented their identification and showed their new insignia, proving that they were either members of the Galactic Federation in Exile, or were part of Earth's military engineering division.

When the soldiers saw their identification badges and were able to prove that the engineers were who they said they were and were allies, they told them, "You're good to go."

The engineers then took the stations around the room that had been abandoned when the previous occupants had been captured. After taking the stations, they checked over the reading to get a bead on the situation. Once they had managed to get a good reading of what was happening, they turned to Samus and Captain Falcon and told them, "Sir and ma'am, the Radio Tower is currently providing communications support for the Federation ground forces and the fleet up in orbit. It is also assisting in the jamming of all outgoing Federation in Exile transmissions both from the ground and from space. However, the jammers are all controlled from this tower. We can shut them down and also make cut off communications from the ground to orbit for all Federation starships."

"Do it!" both Samus and Captain Falcon blurted in unison.

The engineers and technicians then went to work deactivating the jammers and allowing the Federation in Exile fleet in orbit to communicate with the rest of their forces. The process took only a minute or so to execute. In another minute, they had effectively cut off communication between much of the ground forces of the Federation and the orbital support forces. They hoped that that would allow the ground forces on Earth to take over other key locations on the planet, and allow Earth forces to deal with Cyrus before he managed to accomplish his objectives.

Meanwhile, underneath Mount Coronet, the Space Pirates, nearly forgotten by all of the participants of the war, were making the finishing touches to their newest base. The process had not taken long, since there were already tons of caverns already excavated inside the mountain. The only real work that had had to have been done was to set up defensive turrets and sensors inside the mountain, which had been a little time-consuming since the mountain was so large. Still, it had taken less than a day to set up. They had also set up some cloning tanks in order to clone some Zebesian Space Pirate Troopers, but there were only a few of those, and only a dozen or so Zebesians had been born. However, since they were necessary for the defense of the mountain, they were given golden armor and the most powerful energy rifles and plasma missile launchers in the Space Pirate arsenal, making them excellent security troopers.

The last part of the base had been the basement, where a control center for Mother Brain and the rest of High Command had been established. So far, only some work stations and Mother Brain's own stasis tank had been erected as of yet, with them beginning to work on constructing an android body for the organic supercomputer. Once it was finished, she would have regained the power she had had on Zebes and once again be the most powerful weapon that the Space Pirates possessed, save for maybe the two Techno Lords that they currently had on their roster.

One of the Pirate Troopers looked around, admiring the hideout and sighed. "It ain't Zebes, Urtraghus, or Shanera, but it ain't that bad, either."

"Yeah," another Urtragian Space Pirate Trooper echoed. "We've got clean water, a good source of food, and most of all, there's somethin' special about Spear Pillar, which shields us from Federation sensors."

Just then, they heard a silent alarm go off and lights around their perimeter flashed. They went over to the nearest makeshift security station and saw the image of a human boy approximately ten Earth years old, passing through one of the tunnels. He was then accosted by two bat-like creatures called Zubats, but he sent out another creature, a small, orange monkey-like creature that dossiers on the Pokémon Trainers of the region had identified as a Chimchar. The Chimchar dealt with the two Zubats and then returned his trainer's side. The two then passed through the tunnel, not stopping for anything else, and also not deviating from the path that quickly led through the mountain. The two Pirate Troopers grinned and they reported back to Mother Brain, Ridley, and High Command, saying, "Sirs, we have just detected a human child passing through Mount Coronet. Should we kill him?"

The voice of one of the members of High Command came through their comm, asking, "Has he or she detected our existence yet?"

The Pirates glanced at the image once more and saw that the child was walking as quickly through the mountain as possible, not stopping for anything. His current path took him to the exit on the other side of the mountain. "Not that we can tell," one of the Troopers answered. "He seems to be traveling pretty fast."

"Then no," the Pirate Commander replied succinctly.

"But…" the Troopers began.

"No buts!" the Commander roared. "We cannot risk being detected just to satisfy your bloodlust. We have plenty of these Pokémon to eat down here. Secrecy is our goal. The murder of that child and his Pokémon would draw attention to us. I know it sucks, but that's the way it will have to be for a while. Now finish the sensor installation and get back down here."

"Understood, sir," the Troopers responded. They then went about their task, grumbling about how they were not allowed to kill the child and eat him, but they obeyed High Command's order. They could see the logic, but they still thought they were being overcautious.

Down inside the so-called basement of Mount Coronet, Mother Brain and her stasis tank were in the center of a small, makeshift control center. The command center was occupied by the ten remaining Space Pirates of High Command, Ridley, and Rodney and Virginia Aran, both of who were clad in the uniforms that they had worn on K-2L. Mother Brain's eye stared down at the Space Pirates as she inquired, "What is the status of our base?"

"We are online and operational?" one of the members of High Command replied. "We had to convert our freighter into a makeshift repair and engineering center, but I think it should suffice, as well as give us a quick means of escape, along with the transports we still have. Still, our defenses are minimal. We'll have to rely on the feral Pokémon inside the caverns above to provide any meaningful resistance to any invaders. Them, or we can just send our Techno Lords or Kraid at them."

"What is the status of Kraid?" the brain asked.

"Kraid's undergoing his final growth therapy. It should be finished in about an hour. Once it's finished, he'll be even bigger than before, nearly one hundred and twenty Earth feet tall, nearly twice his original size."

"And what about his other enhancements?"

"He'll have his usual organic weapons and retain his skin's near imperviousness to anything short of capital ship-grade weaponry, but he'll also have the ability to shoot energy from his eyes and paralyze his opponents with merely a gaze. Still, don't let an enemy fire any missiles in his mouth. His internal organs are still quite vulnerable to attack."

"I see," Mother Brain said flatly.

It was then that Ridley spoke. "Have the sensors point outwards and put everyone on security alert," he commanded. "There's no way that Cyrus is gonna leave us alone. I expect him to attack us shortly." Turning to Rodney and Virginia, he told them, "I also want you prepared to intercept any attack. If, or rather, _when_, Cyrus attacks, I fully expect him to use Techno Soldiers, possibly even Techno Lords, to attack."

"Understood," Rodney and Virginia responded. They felt that it was unlikely that the Space Pirates would have to deal with Techno Lords since Hi'Gor, the ranking N'Kren soldier on Earth was only a Technoble, and the rank of Techno Lord, and the armor that came with it, was given only to commanders that had proven their worth not only in battle, but also in everyday life. It was as much a gift celebrating a benevolent and moral lifestyle as it was did one's battle prowess. They gave low bows to the Ridley before they departed the command center and went up into the base, and the closest exit point where they could remain on alert and in contact with the rest of High Command. As they departed, Ridley grinned. He knew that full powers of the Techno Lords that the Space Pirates had managed to unlock would make all the difference in the battle that would likely soon come.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14:

On the shore of Goldenrod City, Cyrus stood inside the small command center as Federation forces stormed into the city. Mercury and several Team Galactic members were sitting at the various consoles as all kinds of gunships, shuttles, transports, and fighters flew into the city overhead. Hundreds of troops and drone soldiers were being flown into Goldenrod City to assist in its takeover. The troops inside the city had met massive resistance from Earth military forces and Pokémon Trainers, but due to their superior numbers, they were making slow, but steady, progress. It would only be a matter of time before he had control of the city. He then glanced down at the maps of several other areas as well. His forces, marked by red dots, were making slow inroads into Europe and other areas of Continental Asia, but the invasion of North America had stalled completely. He gave a nonchalant sigh. The capture of America was not important to him. He just wanted to keep the troops there occupied while he accomplished his true objective: finding the Sinjoh Ruins and using his two Arceus trophies to create a new Dialga and Palkia so he can remake the universe in his own image. And failing that, securing Mount Coronet so he could hope that the Arceus trophies could summon the real Dialga and Palkia to the Spear Pillar and hope that the trophies would be able to control the Pokémon.

A few seconds after looking at the map, lines of static appeared on the maps. A puzzled look crossed his face as the static got worse. Looking around at the other operatives, he noticed that they were having similar problems. "What's happening?" he asked to no one in particular.

"I don't know," a young Team Galactic grunt answered. "We're receiving interference on all of our channels. I can't make contact with anyone outside the command center or Goldenrod City."

"We're being jammed? How?"

"I don't know!" the grunt answered. "But if I had to put money on it, I'd say that the Radio Tower was responsible for the jamming."

"But we're in control of the Radio Tower. Why would they be jamming our signal?"

"Maybe a glitch in the program," the grunt suggested. "Possibly a traitor in the tower…"

"Or the Radio Tower was captured," Mercury interjected calmly, as if this was none of his concern and he was merely a bystander.

"The Radio Tower captured?" Cyrus blurted. Even the grunt seemed to find this hard to believe.

"Of course," Mercury replied. "You don't think that Samus Aran was merely sent here to destroy the eight Orbital Rings, do you? She must have had further objectives, especially since we still control the Capitol Building and, until a few minutes ago or so, the Radio Tower."

"Then that means, with the Radio Tower having been captured, the next target will likely be the Capitol Building," Cyrus surmised. "With control of the Capitol Building, she'll have complete control of Earth's Defense Grid."

He almost shuddered at the prospect. Despite outnumbering the Earth Defense Fleet almost ten-to-one in the initial invasion, he had still lost three times the number of capital ships that Earth and the Galactic Federation in Exile had. And that was before taking into account the large number of starfighters, gunships, transports, assault shuttles, and mini-corvettes that had been lost in the invasion as well. With the battle still raging up in orbit, and with the most recent reports indicating that Admiral Dane was inflicting heavy losses to the fleet while he was suffering few, if any, losses in return, he turned to Mercury and asked, "Is there any sign of the location of the Sinjoh Ruins?"

"Not yet, Mr. Chairman, sir," Mercury responded.

Cyrus swore. He looked over and saw a Techno Soldier arrive in the command post. The soldier looked like he had seen better days, for there were several burn marks and minor furrows in his armor. Looking at him, Cyrus commented, "You've looked better."

"I've been worse," the Techno Soldier replied. "My suit's auto-repair systems are already repairing the damage. I should be fine within an hour."

"What is the situation inside Goldenrod City?"

"Federation forces are making slow, but steady progress. However, it is coming with an incredible cost in blood. We can take the city with the forces we have, but in order to hold it, we will need reinforcements."

"I see," Cyrus said thoughtfully. He then looked over at the Techno Soldier and said, "Hi'Gor, I have a special mission for you, should you wish to carry it out."

"What is it?" the Technoble asked, indicating that he would do whatever Cyrus was about to ask.

"I need you to assemble a squad twelve other Techno Knights and go to Mount Coronet. If I can't find, or take, the Sinjoh Ruins, we'll need to take control of the mountain in order for my plan to work. Not only that, but before our transmissions were jammed, my spies indicated that the Space Pirates had somehow managed to breach Earth's planetary shields, both of them, and land near Mount Coronet. I need you and the Techno Knights to take care of them and secure the mountain while I see how viable the Sinjoh Ruins still are."

"It will be my pleasure," the N'Kren soldier responded. The N'Kren had always held a deep, abiding hatred for the Space Pirates, especially for Mother Brain, who betrayed the Chozo. Even as they were fighting the Chozo remnants, they still hated the Space Pirates and Mother Brain for what they had done to their former, and hopefully would soon be again, ally.

Before Hi'Gor departed, though, Cyrus called to him and said, "Before you go, tell Ma'Kar over at the Capitol Building to expect Samus and whatever other Marines and Army Troopers she has with her."

Hi'Gor nodded. Cyrus then called out again, "One more thing. I'll need one of your communicators since all Federation signals have been jammed. In addition, tell your forces that they'll be in charge of communications and coordinating the Federation forces. Also tell the Ylla forces that are embedded in the Federation ranks that they're also going to be taking charge of coordinating our forces and communications should a N'Kren not be present."

"Understood, Chairman," Hi'Gor replied. He then tossed Cyrus a small, cube-like device that Cyrus guessed was a N'Kren communicator. With that, the N'Kren Technoble took off and flew away from the scene.

Once he was away, Cyrus looked over at Mercury asked, "Do you still have Alakazam with you?"

The executive nodded. "Yes, Lord Cyrus. I've still got him, and he's itching for a fight." It was clear that the executive was also eager to participate in the fighting as well.

"His purpose won't be to fight," Cyrus said, holding up his hand as if to tell his subordinate to slow down. "When the time comes, I'll need him to send a telepathic signal to Venus and the other Team Galactic executives and grunts. Until then, he'll be relaying telepathic signals to the rest of our forces until we can break through the Radio Tower's jamming. While the Federation military has proven useful for my purposes, I'm not sure that I can trust them with providing security for the last leg of our mission.

"I see," Mercury said, nodding in understanding. "I'll keep him ready." He then drew out a small ball with a red top and white bottom with a button in the center. He pushed the button and the ball opened and a blob of blue energy emerged from it. The blob formed into a human-like creature with yellow skin, mustache, and pointed ears on the top of its head with a pointed nose. It wore brown, leather armor and had two spoons in its hands.

"Excellent," Cyrus exclaimed. "Until then, you and Alakazam are to stay here. We can't afford to lose Alakazam right now and you'll be guarding him. Until we hear anything, we'll also do our best to clear the jamming being produced by the Radio Tower."

"The Radio Tower may be able to jam our signals to the fleet, but I highly doubt that it will disable our hand radio signals."

"Good," the Chairman told him. "Tell all squad commanders that they are to communicate through hand radios only. It may be slower to coordinate with everyone else than normal, but it's the best we've got at the moment." He then paused before continuing, "Also, get a transport fueled and ready. I want to lift off the moment I hear something, one way or the other, about the Sinjoh Ruins."

"Yes, sir," Mercury said as he went to work. Now, Cyrus could only sit back and wait for word of either victory or defeat in Goldenrod City, or in the numerous other battles in Johto; and/or the location of the Sinjoh Ruins.

Up in space, near the orbit of the Moon, Admiral Dane's forces were inflicting significant damage to the Federation fleet over Earth. Scarlet lances of energy erupted from the forward energy cannons of the battleships as the missile frigates and destroyers continued to pepper the enemy fleet with missiles. So far, almost half of the Federation fleet surrounding Earth had either been destroyed or sustained heavy damage. However, one thing that Admiral Dane, and the rest of the command staff onboard the _Olympus_ had noted was the fact that the Heavy Defense Platforms and other defensive turrets had yet to open fire on the fleet. While the Earth defenders had planted a computer virus onboard the defense platforms, it had been weeks since Cyrus had taken Earth, and his engineers had already broadcasted that they had eliminated the virus and the platforms were now usable. The fact that they had yet to open fire, or even lock onto the fleet, gave him hope. Dane glanced over at his tactical officer, and said, "Lieutenant Commander Bly, what is the status of the fleet defending Earth?"

"They're taking a beating, sir," the Lieutenant Commander answered. "So far, twenty-one hundred and fourteen enemy ships have been destroyed, with eleven hundred and eighty having suffered heavy damage." Looking back at the Admiral, she continued, "Sir, don't you think it's odd that the enemy has not micro-jumped into weapons range? Before the battle began, they outnumbered us more than two-to-one."

"I know," Dane replied, studying the enemy fleet formation. He could barely understand it, himself. There was no reason for the enemy to keep taking this pounding. His ships had superior range to the enemy, and they were also stronger than most of the enemy ships as well. Only the Olympus-class battleships of the opposing fleet and Gehenna-class dreadnaughts had the ability to fire on his fleet at the moment, and he had merely had his own ships concentrate fire on the dreadnaughts and battleships before they could inflict too much damage to his ships.

Just then, Lieutenant Gates noticed that the jamming had vanished and she cried, "Admiral, the jamming is gone! We can send a transmission down to the Earth."

"Open a channel to the surface now!" Castor Dane cried.

After a single beep, Gates informed him, "Channel open."

Admiral Dane then said, "This is Admiral Dane to all Federation in Exile and Earth military forces currently engaging Cyrus and the Federation. We are aware of your current situations and have come to support you. You're no longer alone. We have returned to help you take back Earth. We are fighting his fleet up in orbit with everything we have and are occupying his space-based forces, but Cyrus is likely getting closer to his goals. If you're planning a final assault in an attempt to stop him, execute it now. We're behind you." With that, the transmission ended.

He glanced over at Lieutenant Command Bly and asked, "What is the status of Earth's planetary shield?"

"It's still up, sir," Bly responded.

"Are you detecting any holes or areas of weakness in the shield that we could breach?"

After checking her instruments, Bly answered, "Negative. It's operating at full strength in all sectors. It looks like we'll need some help to get through it."

Just after Bly had given her report, the Federation fleet over Earth disappeared for an instant. In that instant, Admiral Dane smirked. _So they're finally getting their act together_, he thought as the fleet reappeared within their own weapons range of Admiral Dane's fleet. Dane then yelled over the comm channel, which was already open, "All ships, fire at will! Take out as much of the enemy as possible. Starfighters, commence attack!" And with that order, the Federation in Exile fleet opened up on the weakened Federation fleet. And the Federation fleet did likewise to Dane's.

Meanwhile, just outside the Radio Tower in the remains of downtown New York City, Samus Aran emerged from the tower and looked into the sky to see the Heavy Assault Shuttle descending down to the ground. To her sides were numerous Earth Marines standing guard outside the tower. When she passed, they saluted her. The shuttle soon touched down on the ground and she ran over to it. The shuttle's boarding ramp opened and President Richardson and William Hastings came out to meet her. When she arrived, she stopped for a moment and they told her, "Congratulations on a job well done."

"Thank you sirs, but it's not over yet," she responded.

"Quite right," they echoed in agreement. "The Capitol Building still has to be taken back. Without it, reinforcements won't be able to rejoin the battle down on the ground."

As soon as they had said that, one of the Earth Marines, a Colonel according to the rank insignia on his chest, came up to the trio and said, "You'll need help if you wish to take back the Capitol Building. Cyrus has set up a lot of defenses around it."

"Are you volunteering, Colonel?"

"You read my mind, sir," the Marine said with a smile, though it was hidden due to the visor. He then added, "I also have other forces waiting, sirs. My brigade consists of a few assault shuttles, two transports, and some attack fighters. That should provide some decent firepower for dealing with the defenses around the Capitol Building."

As the colonel was discussing his assets with the two leaders, Samus jumped up onto the top of the shuttle and took her position near the damaged rear energy cannons. The Marine Colonel looked at the President and general and asked, "Why is she up there standing near the rear cannon?"

"Our original cannon was damaged in a dogfight with Pigma Dengar so Samus is now our rear gunner," General Hastings answered.

"That won't be necessary. The forces under my command have two squadrons of Katanas, Daggers, and Stilettos that could escort you to the Capitol Building. It won't take long for them to arrive, and you can also use this opportunity to refuel and begin to repair that cannon. Besides, you'll need more ground troops if you want to take back the Capitol Building."

"We'll take whatever help you can give us," President Richardson said gratefully.

The Marine smiled again and spoke into his comm, saying, "Alright, tell Red Squadron and Green Squadron that they're going to be escorting the President's shuttle. Get them fueled and rearmed as we speak."

He listened to the reports that came in over his radio and he told the President, "It should take only a half hour or so for the fighters to be refueled and rearmed. Then we'll be ready to go."

"I thank you, Colonel," the President and General told him. "Welcome aboard."

In the intervening half hour, the Earth Marine contingent boarded the shuttle, taking up the empty seats that had been left unoccupied by the Federation in Exile soldiers that had left in order to secure the Radio Tower. In addition, a couple of engineers had worked on the rear-mounted twin energy cannons and had managed to get them in working order.

Just after the half hour had passed, Samus took her seat in the cockpit, sitting at the pilot's station with General Hastings taking the copilot's station since Captain Falcon remained behind at the Radio Tower in order to keep it secure against any reprisals from Cyrus's Federation forces. She performed a final check to make sure that everything was ready to go, and when it was, she started the ship's engines. A low hum sounded and quickly rose in pitch until it became steady, an indication that the shuttle was powered up. She then raised the shuttle off the ground. The shuttle rose until it was a few hundred feet off the ground. Checking her sensors, Samus found two squadrons of twelve Katanas, Daggers, and Stilettos ready to escort the shuttle, along with a squadron of SFA-10 Warthogs and SFB-2 Wraiths, both fighter types outfitted with anti-tank and light building ordnance. In addition, three Heavy Assault Shuttles and two Assault Transports were present, and likely carrying armor for the ground attack on Washington D.C. Once the shuttle had reached a safe altitude, the ascent ceased and the General opened a channel to the rest of the force, saying, "Okay everyone, we're ready to go. Follow us in." And with that, the general gave Samus the word to gun the engines to maximum power. And she did just that, taking the shuttle from to its maximum speed of mach two at a safe rate for the humans onboard the shuttle, though its shield and inertial dampers were able to allow it to accelerate to that rate within less than a minute. The group then headed towards Washington D.C., and the Capitol Building.

Not far away from the battles inside the Johto Region of Japan, Hi'Gor was assembling twelve Techno Knights for the attack on the new Space Pirate base under Mount Coronet. A dozen N'Kren soldiers stood before him, each of them having arrived in a N'Kren transport ship which was now lifting off in order to help Cyrus with his invasion of the Johto Region. Hi'Gor did not know why Cyrus wanted to have at least a dozen Techno Knights deal with a Space Pirate base, especially given the beating that the Space Pirates had recently sustained in their battle against Admiral Dane and Samus at the _Space Lab Moreau_, over Urtraghus, and more recently at the hands of Samus Aran on Shanera. They were a mere shell of their former selves, with only Kraid, Ridley, and Mother Brain posing any real threat to a Techno Soldier. And of the three of them, only Mother Brain was a real threat. Ridley's plasma blasts simply were not strong enough to penetrate their armor, with him simply lacking the physical strength to harm a Techno Soldier, and Kraid, while huge and likely able to inflict damage via physical impact, was far to slow to be able to manage to strike a Techno Soldier and, like Ridley, had no way of being able to damage one of them should they stay out of range.

Once the N'Kren soldiers were assembled, he called out to them, proclaiming, "Soldiers of the N'Kren, it is good that you came. I have called you here so that we can put an end to an evil organization that has plagued the stars ever since interstellar travel has been around. The last of the Space Pirates forces have been found. Through means unknown to the Federation, and even us, they have managed to breach the defenses of Earth and construct a base underneath a mountain in the Sinnoh Region of Japan known as Mount Coronet. With the Federation forces in Sinnoh currently engaged with Earth military forces, as well as Federation in Exile forces, and no one on either side of the conflict in the region showing any signs of turning their attention towards the Space Pirate threat, it falls to _us_ to find and eliminate the Space Pirates in that mountain, once and for all. I am sending data to your datapads containing the intelligence that our spies have managed to acquire as to the remaining strength of the Space Pirates. You should expect to face off against numerous Space Pirate Troopers, both Zebesian and Urtragian, encounter defense turrets, possibly some bioweapons, ten Space Pirate Commanders, Kraid, Ridley, and Mother Brain. The datapads will tell you all you need to know about each of these Pirate classes and individual Space Pirate leaders. Do you have any questions?"

"No sir!" the dozen N'Kren soldiers responded.

"Then we depart in ten minutes. That should give you all enough time to process the information you have received."

During the ten minutes, the N'Kren intensely studied the data that had been given to them. When the time to depart came, they had memorized each and every bit of the information and could recite it in their sleep. When the time came, Hi'Gor called out to them, proclaiming, "The time has come! We must go, now!"

With that, he touched his watch-like device on his right hand and pushed a button on its side. A crystal spike emerged from the center of the wrist as he pushed another button on his watch and a golden sheen surrounded the soldier. The other N'Kren did the same with their own watches and golden sheens surrounded them as well. Pieces of metal formed over the body of Hi'Gor, first on his arms, then his legs, next his chest, and finally his head. Eventually, he had fully transformed into a Technoble, and the rest of his squad having transformed into Techno Knights. He then pulled the green crystal spike from his right wrist and tossed it a few feet in front of him. The spike soon grew into a surfboard-like object and the Technoble stood on top of it. Out of one end emerged two engines made of the same crystal-like substance, and the other, two energy projectors just like the ones on his suit of armor. The last thing he did was will his energy projecting spiked staff to appear in his left hand. He grinned. There was no way that the Space Pirates would be able to overcome his forces. Once his force had transformed, he cried, "To Mount Coronet!" He then rose into the air a few dozen feet and rocketed off into the distance, followed by his dozen Techno Knights.

Over in Washington D.C., legions of giant mechs stood at attention inside the city, keeping a close watch for any signs of attack. From the Capitol Building Ma'Kar, a Technoble like Hi'Gor, watched as the mechs continued their vigil in anticipation of the impending attack. He had heard of Admiral Dane's transmission to the forces of Earth and it had given them a renewed sense of hope. The mechs were supposed to keep any enemy forces at bay. Ma'Kar had inwardly scoffed at General Korro's confidence in the mechs. Like the humans of Earth, he viewed the potential psychological impact as unimportant compared to the resources used to build the unstable platforms that could not utilize strong armor over the entire body without sinking into the ground, or becoming giant humanoid hover units that hemorrhaged fuel and resources in order to become useful for battle. Of course, Ma'Kar had outwardly supported General Korro's decision to use the metal monsters as the primary surface and air defenses in the city, but inwardly he suspected that the humans were right and that the liabilities of the mechs greatly outweighed the assets. When the report from one of his soldiers said that Samus had stated that her parents had been given to the Space Pirates to use as troops, he was shocked. The N'Kren had handed her parents over to Cyrus, and of all of the human Techno Soldiers, they had been the _only_ soldiers that had been ordered to join Cyrus's forces by Hi'Gor. Even though they had voice misgiving after receiving some orders from Cyrus and a few of his other military leaders, they had showed no signs of intending to defect from the Federation, much less becoming Space Pirates. He could not fathom them willingly siding with the Space Pirates. They had to have been coerced somehow. But finding out how they were coerced would have to wait. He had other goals at the moment, such as the defense of Washington D.C. While he had misgivings as to Cyrus's benevolence, he did not want to betray the Galactic Federation, and his own people, until he had some real evidence to their treachery, and that Earth and its supporters were right about Cyrus and his plans.

Ma'Kar went over to one of the sensor consoles and checked the map. Sitting outside Washington D.C., was an assortment of troops waiting just far enough away from the city so as to be out of range of the mechs. However, the N'Kren soldier did not doubt that the reason they were not attacking was the fact that they were waiting for air support. He could have sent the mechs out to face them, but that would leave the Capitol Building relatively unprotected. While the building did have its own defensive missile screen, a contingent of Marines and Army Troopers, as well as himself, if the rumors of Samus having acquired the Power Missile and other weapons were true, then even _he_ might not have been enough to eliminate Samus, especially with the Marines and other troopers that were aiding her in the battle.

He glanced over at one of the tactical officers, a male Lizardian wearing brown leather armor, sitting at a computer console with a map of the city and its surroundings, and he told him, "What is the status of our defenses?"

"Our defenses are strong," the Lizardian responded. "We have almost one hundred mechs stationed throughout the city, numerous defense turrets should they manage to enter into the city, and we still have a full wing of aircraft patrolling the ciy and the surrounding area. We can begin bombardment of the enemy soldiers outside when you wish."

Ma'Kar looked at the map once more and he said, "Not yet. Right now, we have to worry about what might be coming into the city from outside."

"Are you sure, sir?"

The N'Kren nodded. "The Radio Tower was taken by Federation, I mean, _Federation in Exile_, and Earth forces. It is almost guaranteed that they'll be coming here next. They need to take control of the Capitol Building in order to be able to lower the planetary shields and take control of the Defense Grid."

"So, how long do you think we have before the attack is launched?"

The Lizardian's question was answered when an explosion sounded outside the Capitol Building and the building shook. "It's begun," Ma'Kar replied.

Alarms blared into existence as the building shook again. General Korro was frantic as he charged into the operations room, yelling, "What the hell is going on?"

Ma'Kar remained calm as he told the General of the Federation Military, "We are under attack by Earth and Federation forces."

"Sirs, we're reading the arrival of two squadrons of aircraft coming in!" the Lizardian screamed frantically. After a moment, the Lizardian continued, "Correction, we have a full flight group coming in, along with four Heavy Assault Shuttles and two Assault Transports!" More explosions could be heard outside the building. "The forces outside the city have begun their attack!"

"What were our fighter patrols doing?"

The building then rocked again and a dozen red blips, likely representing Federation fighters, disappeared from the screen. "Likely getting shot down," Ma'Kar responded.

General Korro seethed for a few seconds before beginning to compose himself and formulate a defensive strategy. "What are our current assets here?" he called out to his staff.

One of the officers went over to a map display and read, "We still have a full flight group of fighters, along with a full squadron and four other fighters from the decimated flight group that was taken down in the first few minutes of the fighting. We also have eighty mechs still operational and ready to fight. We have close to a thousands squads of troops stationed throughout the city and its surrounding area. Most of them are still reporting in. They are also equipped with anti-aircraft and anti-armor weapons. We also have a hundred tanks of various classes still combat capable. Should we have them form a line around the city?"

"No," Korro answered. "We'll need them to hold off the enemy while we deal with the shuttles and transports coming into the city."

Just then, several more blips disappeared from the screen all in a section that already had weakened defenses. "Sir, all defensive turrets, mechs, and tanks in sector four have been destroyed. The enemy has a clear landing zone. Not only that, but there are only a few other defensive turrets and tanks in the next sector of the net that protects the Capitol Building!"

"Ma'Kar!" General Korro roared.

"I'm already on it," the N'Kren soldier replied as he tapped a button on a wristwatch-like device on his left wrist. Immediately, a golden sheen of light surrounded the N'Kren's body and a golden outline appeared over his body. Plates of armor began to take shape and form over the various parts of his arms and legs. Once they clamped together, smaller pieces of metal extended from them to cover other parts of the body. Several other metal spikes soon protruded from the shoulders, helmet, knees, and feet. Eventually, the transformation was complete, and when it was, Ma'Kar proceeded to make his way towards the exit.

Before he left, General Korro called after him and asked, "If one of those shuttles or transports is carrying Samus Aran, can you defeat her?"

Ma'Kar looked back at him and answered, "The armored suits of Techno Knights are stronger than Chozo Power Suits. And my Technoble armor and weapons are noticeably stronger than those of a Techno Knight."

"But Samus's current Power Suit is based on the suits built during the Chozo's height as warriors, as well as peacemakers. It also has various upgrades already built into it. Can you defeat _this_ Samus?"

"Yes," Ma'Kar said unwaveringly. While his statement was unwavering, he was not so certain of his ability to defeat the child of Rodney and Virginia Aran. He was certain that if he put his mind to it, he could defeat Samus, but the question was whether or not he would have the will to beat her. Yes, she was fighting for the enemy, but she had always fought for the side she believed was fighting for justice, which was one of the reasons he believed that it was odd to see her fighting for the greed of the Earth and the human planets that had sided with them. However, the same could be said for the Chozo and the Luminoth, both of whom were more spiritually inclined than the N'Kren or even the Ylla. Even worse was the fact that all of these occurrences and rumors as to the excesses of the Federation military during attacks on human worlds, and even in their failed assaults on Tallon IV and Aether were so widespread and had not really been contested by the Federation, with the Federation saying that it was merely Earth propaganda. Still, Hi'Gor had given him an order, and he would carry it out, no matter how much he questioned it, or how distasteful it was. His sense of duty and honor forbade him from refusing to carry out such an order unless the order had been to kill or brutalize civilians and/or children. With that, the Technoble rushed out the door and proceeded to make his way to the exit of the Capitol Building as quickly as he could. Once he did, he rocketed off into the sky to assist the defenders in fighting off the Earth attackers.

Meanwhile, in the skies just outside Washington D.C., the Heavy Assault Shuttle carrying Samus, President Richardson, and General Hastings made its final approach towards the city. As it did so, General Hastings zeroed in on a sector of defensive turrets that were spraying scarlet energy bolts into the air. A lucky shot from one of the turrets had managed to tag one of the missiles that had been launched from outside the city that had likely been targeting one of the mechs that was still standing not too far away from the building. Still, the hit must have been a lucky hit since such turrets were likely trying to hit the air and spacecraft that were making attack runs on the surface defenses. Once the targeting computer had managed to get locks on all of the remaining defense turrets in that sector, the general let fly with a volley of missiles. As the missiles zoomed towards their targets, the turrets began to turn to focus on the new contacts, seeing them as new hostile contacts. Before they had managed to turn towards the shuttle, or the missiles, though, the missiles struck the turrets and blew them apart in a firestorm of fire and metal.

Soon, a platoon of Federation Army Troopers appeared in the area. Several of the troopers seemed to have shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles. Deploying the anti-personnel energy cannons, General Hastings opened fire on the troopers before they could get a good bead on the shuttle and blasted them to pieces. That did not stop them from firing on the shuttle before their deaths, though, but since the targeting systems of the missile did not have time to get a lock, they had to dumb fire the missiles. Even so, though, Hastings did not want to take any chances, so he angled the shuttle's shields forward so that should one or more of the missiles manage to hit the shuttle, that the shuttle would not be taken down. One of the missiles had managed to find its mark and inflict damage to the shuttle's shields. However, it was not enough to take down the shuttle, so the massacre continued. After a few more seconds, the entire force was destroyed.

Once the area was cleared of enemy forces, the shuttle made its descent, two Katana-class starfighters providing cover for the shuttle as the rest of the flight group picked off more ground and air targets. The Federation in Exile Stilettos exchanged fire with their Federation counterparts, with the superior pilots of the Federation in Exile Stilettos getting the better part of the exchange. The Katanas and Daggers dealt with the Rapier, Épée, and Claymore-class starfighters, inflicting significant losses to the enemy starfighters while suffering no fighter losses in return with only a few suffering damage. With the air forces of the enemy being occupied, the Heavy Assault Shuttle, along with the other three Heavy Assault Shuttles, and the two Assault Transports, landed and opened up, deploying their troops.

Once the shuttle had landed, Samus went to the rear of the shuttle so she could join the Marines and Army Troopers in the attack on the Capitol Building. She then followed the Marines and Army Troopers off the shuttle, which was still laying down covering fire for the troopers as they disembarked, mowing down any Federation troopers that happened to wander too close to the shuttle. She was followed by President Richardson and General Hastings, with two Marine pilots taking the controls. When the group emerged from the shuttle, they faced no resistance.

After leaving the shuttle, Samus risked a glance towards the other shuttles and transports and saw that the troopers being deployed from them were also facing minimal to no resistance. Once the troopers had disembarked, each shuttle rose into the air and continued to support the troops by laying down more covering fire, targeting any tanks and mechs that took an interest in the troops.

Looking off into the distance, the Earth and Federation in Exile forces saw the Capitol Building in the distance. Samus suspected that it was no more than a few hundred meters away. As the troopers moved towards the building, they saw a pulsating green energy pulse appear from the sky heading towards one of the Assault Transports. The pulse struck the transport in the center of the ship and literally cut it in half. The aft section of the ship separated from the front and fell to the ground, and onto a group of unfortunate Federation Marines. As for the front of the transport, the pilot must have survived, for while the front half of the transport had begun to list downward, the nose of the ship leveled off and while the ship still fell to the ground, it did so at an angle, and hopefully upon crashing, the ship would not break apart or explode. One thing in the ship's favor was that the descent was seemingly slowing a bit. Eventually, the transport crashed into the ground, sending up a cloud of rock, dirt, and concrete. The transport continued to skid along the ground, barreling through anything and anyone in its way until it eventually came to a rest less than one hundred meters away from the Capitol Building.

Samus looked over at General Hastings and asked, "Can you hold on without me?"

The general nodded.

"Good. I'm going over to the downed transport to make sure the crew is okay."

"I'll send over some medics, too," Hastings added.

He then motioned for two Marines that had experience with field medicine to accompany Samus over to the fallen transport. The two Marines stepped forward, each of them with a red cross on their armored suits, and equipped with only an energy assault rifle and a medical kit. Scanning the Marines, she found that they still had shields, but that their shields were not as strong as those of normal combat Marines. Once they had stepped forward, they followed her across the battlefield towards the fallen transport, which had landed in an area that had not yet been cleared of defensive turrets and tanks. They could only hope that the crew of the transport would be able to hold on until they arrived.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15:

Samus sprinted across the battlefield, charging her Plasma Beam in order to deal with any Marines or heavier forces that came to stop them from rendering aid to the crew of the transport. She noticed a tank off in the distance headed their way, firing its main energy cannon towards the fallen transport. It was a Landmaster. She could only hope that the Landmaster did not belong to the Star Fox Team. She targeted the tank with her Plasma Beam and let loose with a Charged Shot. The orange-red blast of energy crossed the distance between her and the tank at close to the speed of light. The blast struck the tank on its side, but the beam failed to penetrate. However, her sensors did indicate that the armor was weakened. Still, she did not want to waste any time dealing with the tank, so she quickly switched to her Power Beam and charged it in preparation of firing a Super Missile. Once it was charged, she locked onto the tank and unleashed her Super Missile upon said tank. The missile erupted from her arm cannon and rocketed towards the tank and struck it less than a second after its firing. The tank erupted in a tremendous display of fire and metal, sending out shrapnel and flame towards the Marines and Army Troopers that had been walking alongside the tank, sending them diving to the ground for cover. This gave Samus and the medics more than enough time to cross the battlefield and get to the transports, each combatant only having to lay down some covering fire against any Marine foolish enough to try to take a shot at them.

As they were nearing the transport, though, a figure descended from the sky and landed directly in front of them. Samus immediately recognized the figure as a Technoble. She grimaced as she scanned the warrior, confirming her suspicion that this was, indeed, a Technoble. This was one thing that she had not expected. She had initially expected the higher-ranking Techno Soldiers, such as Knights, Nobles, and Lords to be deployed in outer space where they could be used to tremendous effect against the superior starfighters of the Federation in Exile. The Technoble looked directly at Samus and said, "Since you are the daughter of Rodney and Virginia Aran, my friends, I will give you this one chance to surrender. If you do so, I will allow the medics to pass and aid the occupants of the downed transport. If you do not, though, I will destroy you here and now."

Samus considered the offer for a second before responding, "And what assurances to I have that you'll allow the medics to pass?"

"You have my word," Ma'Kar answered.

Samus sighed. "Once, that would have been good enough for me, considering the alliance between the Chozo and the N'Kren. However, since you have cast your lot in with a lunatic like Cyrus and his monsters for military commanders, your word does not carry much worth." She quickly switched to her Wave Beam, charged her cannon and said, "I cannot afford to surrender. The stakes are too high, not only for the Earth, but for the entire universe. Since you are a N'Kren, I will give you the offer you gave me. Only, my one request will be for you to either step aside or join me. You must see that Cyrus is out of control. He has thrown his entire fleet, and the fleets of sovereign members of the Galactic Federation at Earth in his need to capture it and find the Sinjoh Ruins so he can destroy this universe and create his own."

"That is merely Earth propaganda!" Ma'Kar blurted.

"You're wrong!" one of the Medical Marines cried in protest. "We _know_ Cyrus! He's from our world! This isn't the first time he's tried something like this. He did it before he entered politics, using an organization called Team Galactic as his army. If you side with him, you're throwing away who you are. Don't let your fear of the Magic Lords control your actions," the Marine pleaded.

"I am not letting those monsters control my actions," Ma'Kar protested. It was clear, though, that his resolve was beginning to waver.

"Then you're letting those who are letting their fear control them control you," Samus retorted. She could tell that his resolve to fight her was beginning to waver, though. "You're different from the others. You still have your honor. Do the right thing."

"But the threat of the Magic Lords is true. And they have been taken to the brink of extinction before and returned, even stronger and more determined than ever. If Cyrus can eliminate them once and for all, should we not do everything we can to see the plan through?"

"At the cost of a planet with more than six billion people, and countless more other sentients?" Samus countered. "The Magic Lords are not the only evil in the universe," she said, walking towards him, lowering her arm cannon and switching to her Ice Beam to neutralize the charge. "Don't become another force for evil in your zeal to eliminate the Magic Lords. Too many have already fallen into that trap. Don't join them."

Ma'Kar then shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, Samus Aran. But I cannot let you and the medics pass. To that end…"

He drew his staff and the sharp point at the end of the staff began to glow green. He pointed it at Samus and she immediately jumped into the air and somersaulted, performing a Screw Attack. A massive wave of energy erupted from Ma'Kar's staff and struck Samus's Screw Attack shield. The energy struck the shield, but was not powerful enough to breach, and thus, it flowed around her like a tidal wave. As she was deflecting the energy, she told the medics, "Now's your chance, go!"

The medics rushed past the battle, being careful to not get struck by any of Ma'Kar's energy wave and towards the fallen Assault Transport. Ma'Kar quickly turned to face them so he could stop them, raising the other point of his lance at them and causing it to glow, but in doing so, took his eyes off of Samus just as his attack against her ceased. This was a significant mistake, one that Samus was quick to take advantage of. The bounty hunter could scarcely believe her luck as she saw the warrior turn his back to her in order to deal with the medics as she curled into her Morph Ball form and proceeded to use the Spring Ball ability, combined with the Boost Ball to propel herself into Ma'Kar's back, and into one of his suit's engines. As she did so, she immediately dropped a Power Bomb, which instantly detonated inside the engine. Samus was propelled away from the explosion, which expanded about thirty meters outward from the center of the blast. Ma'Kar took much of the brunt of the impact with his engine wall redirecting the force of the bomb was focused on the engines of his back and the engines. This also protected the fleeing medics from the Power Bomb's blast as well. While the destruction field did eventually expand beyond the Noble, it only expanded out to around ten meters beyond Ma'Kar and did not threaten the medics in the slightest as they went over to help the occupants of the downed transport.

Meanwhile, Ma'Kar was thrown to the ground by the blast of the Power Bomb. His engine walls were completely melted and the engines were gone. Burn marks marred his whole back and there were even cracks in the armor. Checking his readouts, he saw that his armor was compromised in several areas in the back; something that Samus's scans quickly told her as well. She responded by switching to her Wave Beam and preparing her Wave Buster. Since Ma'Kar was a Technoble, she knew that it would take more than a few Wave Beam shots to take him down. She also wanted to end this fight as quickly as possible without putting anyone else in danger.

Ma'Kar also felt the need to end this fight as quickly as possible, so he proceeded to power his chest and shoulder-mounted energy projectors and cannons. Samus could only grin as the projectors started to glow a deep emerald green, for she knew that she had him now. He would have a moment of vulnerability when he unleashed the power of his energy projectors and cannons on her. The glow of the energy projectors continued to brighten until they stopped getting brighter, indicating that they were about to fire. This was Samus's cue to unleash her Wavebuster upon Ma'Kar. Just as he was about to fire, Samus fired first. A stream of lightning erupted from her cannon and struck Ma'Kar in the chest. With the cracks of the armor on his back, he felt the tingling sensation of electricity, but he knew that the real damage was about to be done, as his energy projectors were about to open fire. The barriers on the projectors fell and the projectors opened for an instant so as to unleash the energy stored within them and in that instant, the weapons were overloaded by Samus's Wavebuster. The lightning blew out the energy projectors and shoulder-mounted cannons and the projectors and cannons exploded. The explosions rocked Ma'Kar and sent him flying through the air, spraying small pieces of metal in all directions as his armor was blown out. He landed about ten meters away and skidded to a halt along the ground, electricity surging from numerous breaches in his suit and arcing across his form. Samus knew that she had him, and that a single Wave Beam blast would be the end of this Technoble.

She charged her Wave Beam and took aim at the N'Kren soldier. While Ma'Kar's suit had sustained tremendous damage in the fighting and was barely functioning, he was not done yet. His staff was still intact. Checking it, he could see that it remained undamaged. He gripped his staff and proceeded to point it at the bounty hunter. After he leveled it at her, he opened fire at the same exact instant that Samus unleashed her Charged Wave Beam blast at him. Samus was already in the process of moving, though, so his blast went wide of the bounty hunter. Her shot, however, hit true due to the homing effects of the Wave Beam. The trio of purple undulating pulses struck Ma'Kar in the chest and electricity arced across his suit. As it did so, the suit shut down. His HUD went black and the only window he had to the outside world were two narrow tubes that were his suit's eyes. His suit weighed heavily on him and he fell to the ground, his suit now a useless deadweight. He undid the manual release of his suit and rose from the wreckage that had one been his Technoble suit of armor.

He stood up, devoid of his armor, and any defensive weapon, and stared at the bounty hunter. When Samus did not shoot him and end his threat permanently, he asked in a calm voice, "What are you waiting for, Hunter? Kill me and get it over with."

Samus raised her arm cannon to his head for an instant, but then lowered it just as quickly as she had raised it to him. She stared at him and said, "I will not murder you."

"What do you mean?" Ma'Kar asked curiously. He could not fathom why Samus had refused to finish him since he was still her enemy, and was quite dangerous, even without his armor. "We are enemies. You must finish it!"

"To kill you in the heat of battle is one thing," Samus called in response. "But to kill you now, when your threat is neutralized, would be wrong. I know that you are a skilled hand-to-hand fighter, but you have no ranged defensive side arm. Besides, you're not a Space Pirate, or a monster. You are a N'Kren warrior, and I was raised by the Chozo. Our people were allies once. They could still be again," she added quietly.

Ma'Kar, however, shook his head, looking downcast. "I doubt that that can happen," he said. "Too much has happened in the last year; heck, the last month, for that matter." The thoughts of the conquest of Earth entered into his mind, as he watched as Hi'Gor had ordered N'Kren ships to join in the tactical bombardment of Earth bases and even cities that were said to have large numbers of soldiers. However, for some countries, almost anyone who could walk could become a soldier at a moment's notice. As it was, several cities had been destroyed and millions of civilians: men, women, and children, were killed in the bombardments carried out by Cyrus and his forces, some of them even being carried out by the N'Kren fleet. Ma'Kar had objected to the strikes, so he had been relegated to guard duty while Hi'Gor had joined Cyrus on the attacks on important Earth targets.

He then thought about the Ylla. Even though they were still allied with the Galactic Federation, they had not participated in the bombardment of the Earth. In fact, the Ylla had nearly withdrawn their support from the war due to the very bombing of Earth being perpetrated by Cyrus's forces. Only the guarantee to stop the orbital strikes was enough to keep the Ylla from switching sides or, at the very least, becoming a neutral party. That had not stopped the Orbital Rings from launching attacks of their own, but the Rings had been taken care of by Samus. He gazed at the helmet of Samus and saw her eyes. Even through the helmet, he could see her mother's eyes gazing back at him. He told her, "I heard rumors that your parents were captured by Space Pirates."

"Those aren't rumors," Samus corrected. "It's true. Cyrus gave the Space Pirates my parents, likely as payment for any services they gave unto him, and they now serve him as Space Pirate Techno Lords under the command of Ridley, the one who put them in a state of clinical and near brain death in the massacre of K-2L when I was three years old.

Ma'Kar looked into the bounty hunter's eyes and when he saw that she was telling the truth, he seethed. The rumors _were_ true. Cyrus _had_ handed her parents, the ones that he had rescued on K-2L and taken back to their homeworld and nursed back to health, taught them how to fight and become N'Kren warriors, and even getting the Council to bestow on them the armor of Techno Lords, had been betrayed by Cyrus, and by extension, his own commanding officer as well; for he knew that Hi'Gor had to have known the rumors and suspected that they were more than rumors. Eventually, he told Samus, "Very well. You may pass."

The bounty hunter then charged past the N'Kren warrior. As she went past, she turned back to him and, for a second, removed her helmet, saying, "Thank you…"

"Ma'Kar," the N'Kren told her.

"Thank you Ma'Kar. You have shown the finest qualities of all N'Kren warriors. You are just as I was taught by Old Bird and Gray Voice."

Ma'Kar gave her a kind smile as he gazed into Samus's eyes and saw Virginia inside of Samus. Samus then put her helmet back on and she headed towards the shuttle. Ma'Kar then went to scour the field for any discarded weapon: Federation, Earth, Federation in Exile, or even N'Kren, and join in the fighting on the right side of the fight.

It did not take Samus long to reach the fallen transport. When she arrived, she saw the two medics working on a group of Marines in the rear part of the fallen half of the ship. None of the Marines looked to be in any serious danger of dying, and when she saw that they would be fine, she was relieved. She heard one of the Marines recount the downing of the craft. "If you didn't believe in miracles before, you will now," he said jovially. "I mean, all of the Marines that would have been in the back were already deployed on the battlefield, and the rest of them were up in the front half."

"Not only that, but the pilots were able to keep the nose up, so we suffered less damage on impact. I only got a couple of bruises," another Marine said.

"Still, it would be a good idea to get yourself checked out at a hospital," a third Marine said, "just incase there are any internal injuries that can't be diagnosed on the battlefield."

"We all were a little banged up," a fourth chimed in. "But the good news is we're all alive. Let's make sure we stay that way by taking that building out there."

The Marines then gave a battle cry and proceeded to depart the fallen transport. Samus went over to the two medics and asked, "Is everything alright here?"

"We're fine," the medics responded. "We'll be safe here. Most of the fighting has gone on to other areas surrounding the building, too. This may be your chance to infiltrate the building and retake it."

Samus nodded and departed. As she did so, she saw Ma'Kar standing outside the fallen transport, holding a Federation Marine's assault energy rifle. "You may be good, one of the best, even, but there are times when everyone could use a little help once in a while."

Samus smiled and said, "Thanks," as she accepted his offer to help. The two then made their way towards the Capitol Building.

Along the way, they came across a platoon of Federation in Exile Marines and Army Troopers that were pinned down by a massive mech off in the distance. The two went over to the Marines and the Marines were delighted to see them coming. One of them then told her, "We're pinned down by that stupid mech and we used up our anti-armor weapons earlier in the fight."

Samus had the solution, though, as she switched to her Power Beam and readied a Super Missile. Before shooting the mech, she scanned it, the scan reading, _Object – Star Elf Mech Warrior: Level One. The first level of Mech Warrior is a gigantic humanoid robot standing at about thirty-six feet in height that is armed with a large energy sword, and an energy rifle for use in ranged combat against opposing ground vehicles and air and spacecraft. Despite its imposing size, its armor is relatively thin, due to the fact that it must be able to stand on the ground without sinking into it. It's greatest weaknesses lie in its joints, particularly the legs. Should the legs be taken out, the mech is effectively rendered impotent._

Samus finished the scan and could only smile. The mechs seemed to be significantly less dangerous than their appearance would have indicated. To confirm her theory, she charged her Power Beam and locked onto the mech. Once she had locked on, she launched a Super Missile at the behemoth. The large missile with a green warhead emerged from her arm cannon and flew towards the mech at a blistering pace. In less than a second, it struck the mech in the chest and blew a massive hole in it. The force of the explosion knocked the mech off of its feet and it fell backwards, onto a ground-based APC that was about to deploy troops to help support the mech, crushing the vehicle and killing the troopers onboard. There the mech lay, never to rise again. With the mech, as well as the reinforcements that were supposed to have engaged the Marines and Samus having been dealt with, she, Ma'Kar, and the others charged forward towards the Capitol Building.

About a few dozen meters away from the building, a ground-based hover APC came out in front of the group and fired a barrage of energy blasts into the group from the cannon on top of the craft. As it was firing on the Earth and Federation in Exile forces, the rear hatch of the craft opened and out came a dozen Federation Army Troopers. The Earth and Federation in Exile forces quickly took cover behind a piece of wreckage from a fallen mech and managed to avoid taking any fatalities in the attack. One of the Marines was equipped with a missile launcher and emerged from cover to take care of the vehicle. A missile rocketed away from his launcher and struck the APC in its side in less than a second. The Armored Personnel Carrier went up in a magnificent explosion, spraying debris and shrapnel in all directions. The Federation Army Troopers that emerged from the vehicle dove to the ground to avoid being skewered by the shrapnel.

The Earth and Federation in Exile forces quickly took advantage of the opportunity and opened fire on the Federation Army Troopers, felling eight of them in the opening volley. Samus joined in the firing, but she used her Light Beam to deal with the troopers, most of who were disintegrated by the Light Beam upon being hit by it. Those that did not die from the blasts were severely injured, showing that they were perilously close to falling into evil. Once the troopers had been dealt with, the force rushed past the scene and headed towards the Capitol Building.

As they approached, they encountered more resistance in the form of Missile Security Robots and Security Android Troopers. A dozen of each of the robot types came out to meet the Marines and Army Troopers and opened fire on them. Fortunately, the shields of the Marines and Army Troopers' armored suits managed to absorb the opening volley with only one Army Trooper getting his shields breached and his armor holding up against the rest of the energy fire and shrapnel produced by the missiles' explosions before managing to duck behind cover, suffering only a few bruises from the assault. As for Samus, she used her Screw Attack to deflect the energy bolts away from her and destroy the missiles that came into contact with her, suffering no damage in the process. She somersaulted her way towards the Missile Security Robots as they continued to fire on her, inflicting no damage upon the unstoppable bounty hunter. Seeing Samus as a greater threat than the Marines and Army Troopers, the SATs opened fire on her, despite the fact that her Screw Attack shield rendered her immune to their fire. The blue energy bolts fired from their rifles bounced off of her shield and into the ground, throwing up plumes of dirt and debris in the process. Meanwhile, the bounty hunter plowed through each of the Missile Security Robots in rapid succession, annihilating said robots with single hits. She continued her seemingly unsteady flight through the rest of the Missile Robot squad, destroying them all in less than a minute. She then turned her attention to the remaining SATs, who were divided between dealing with the invading Marines and Army Troopers, and trying to kill her. The division of their forces proved even more fatal to the robots than it would have been had they focused on one threat or the other, for with only six robots shooting at them, the Marines and Army Troopers were willing to take a hit or two to their shields as they mowed down the unshielded robots. Samus also continued her flight towards the robots, plowing through each of them on contact, shattering the robots. In less than a minute, the skirmish was over; twenty-four robots were destroyed with no casualties for the Earth and Federation in Exile forces.

The platoon continued towards the Capitol Building, dealing with any enemy Federation forces that came their way, be they Marines, Army Troopers, or robots. During their flight, they noticed a twin-rotored Federation atmospheric gunship approach. The flash of the muzzle on the nose-mounted energy cannons indicated that they were being targeted and fired upon. Explosions rang out all around them, managing to throw several Marines to the ground, though their shields had managed to protect the occupants inside the suits, and only a direct hit would be enough to inflict serious injury or death to the troopers. Samus wanted to make sure that this did not happen, though, so she step out and targeted the gunship. While she did so, she charged her Plasma Beam. Once the beam was charged, unleashed the Charged Shot at the gunship. Despite its armor being sufficient to block most small arms fire from Federation weapons, a shot from an Army Trooper's Plasma Cannon would be sufficient to inflict damage to the craft if it hit in the right area; and Samus's Charged Plasma Beam was stronger than the blasts from a Federation Army Trooper's Plasma Cannon, so her fire would be able to shoot it down. The plasma pulse struck the gunship in the left rotor and blew it off. The craft immediately listed to one side and smoke issued from the wound. The craft spun around as it attempted to remain aloft, but was involuntarily descending to the ground. The platoon continued making its way to the Capitol Building as the gunship crashed into the ground and deformed upon crashing. Just before it hit, the crew managed to eject from their doomed craft, but it was of little consolation, for they would fall right into the middle of a firefight between one of the few remaining defending platoons of Federation troopers, and the Federation in Exile and Earth Marines and Army soldiers.

Samus and the rest of the platoon that she had joined arrived at the steps of the Capitol Building and they encountered only light resistance in the form of six Federation Army Troopers. The Federation in Exile platoon commander called out to the six Army Troopers, yelling, "The building's surrounded. More of our forces are coming. Your armor has been destroyed and the Federation lines are crumbling. This is a lost battle for you. But you don't have to join far too many of your comrades in death. Surrender now and we will treat you humanely."

The only response the Federation in Exile platoon commander got was a volley of bullets, which managed to slightly dent his shields, but otherwise, did no harm. This prompted the other Marines and Army Troopers to open fire on the defenders. The six Army Troopers fell in a hail of energy fire, much to the sorrow of the Federation in Exile forces. "Fools," was the platoon commander's only comment as he shook his head at the events that had just unfolded. He selected six Marines and told them, "Check for any survivors. If you find any, take them into custody and see that their wounds are checked out. There has been too much death here, already, and it looks like this won't be the end of it."

The six Marines selected looked over each of the fallen Federation troopers, but found that none were still alive. They looked over at the commander and shook their heads. The commander then said, "Well, we have a job to do. Once we take the building, then we'll gather the dead and give them a proper burial."

A few seconds later, the platoon was joined by several more platoons of Earth and Federation in Exile Marine and Army Troopers, one of them being President Richardson and General Hastings' platoons. Once they had joined together, as one, they stormed into the Capitol Building.

Meanwhile, Samus had already made her way into the building in order to clear a path for the Earth and Federation in Exile forces. The first source of resistance came in the lobby, in the form of a dozen SATs. She mowed down the robots with her Power Beam before they had even managed to get off a single shot. Proceeding past the wreckage of the robots, she came across a squad of Federation Army Troopers. Switching to her Light Beam, she opened fire on the troopers as soon as they appeared. She felled four of the troopers in her initial barrage, each trooper being severely burned by the Light Beam, but not killed outright. She dove to the floor to avoid the return fire of the troopers and picked off a few more troopers from her prone position. Two troopers were disintegrated by the Light Beam while a third and fourth trooper were completely unfazed by the beam. Before dealing with those troopers, who promptly opened fire on her with their Freeze Guns, she dealt with the remaining troops, three of them being disintegrated by the Light Beam, two suffering severe burns but surviving the battle, and two more being completely unaffected by the beam. To deal with the troopers that were not affected by the Light Beam, she switched to her Wave Beam and opened fire on the troopers. The trios of small, purple undulating pulses struck the four troopers and electricity arced across their armor suits as they fell to the floor, unconscious, but not dead.

She then went further into the building, heading into a corridor that led deeper into the building. Inside the corridor, she came across a Techno Power Suit. This surprised her, since she thought that the Techno Power Suits would have been much more useful outside the building assisting the troops, mechs, and tanks in repulsing the assault on the Capitol Building. This _did_ present some problems, though, because she did not want to use her more powerful weapons, like her Power Bombs and Power Missiles inside the building. However, she still had other options for dealing with the mini-mech. She somersaulted towards the mech as it leveled the massive cannon on its right arm on her. The mech fired on her but her Screw Attack shield deflected the pulse of energy into one of the walls, where it continued out onto the battlefield and fell among a platoon of Federation Marines and exploded, engulfing them in a green sphere of energy, annihilating them. She then collided with the cannon and destroyed its barrel, rendering it useless to the Techno Power Suit soldier. She then landed and charged her Wave Beam, preparing to lash out at the suit with her Wavebuster. The Techno Power Suit tried to run towards her and pulverize her with his fist, but she was too quick for him and easily danced out of his way. Once the Wave Beam was charged, she unleashed a vicious stream of lightning on the Techno Power Suit via her Wavebuster. Electricity arced across its body and the suit writhed and backed away from Samus as her assault continued. The assault continued for eight seconds before she stopped. Once she cut off the stream of lightning, the Techno Power Suit was thrown down the corridor. The suit flew through the air and landed ten meters away, skidding to a halt, electricity still arcing across the its body. Once the soldier came to a halt, the suit of armor opened and revealed a Star Elf male, who rose from the wreckage and drew a pistol on Samus. She immediately fired a single pulse from her Wave Beam and felled the Star Elf. The Elf slumped down to his knees, and then fell to the floor face first. She approached him and scanned him to make sure that he was still alive. Her scans indicated that he was alive and in no danger of dying. She then walked past him, letting any soldiers that would later arrive take custody of him, and headed down the corridor and made her way to the rotunda so she could find the control chamber for the Planetary Defense Grid and the planetary shields.

It did not take long for her to find her way to the rotunda. On her way through the building, she encountered only a few Federation Army Troopers, which she quickly dealt with by using her Light Beam, which sadly disintegrated two of the troopers, and burned the rest of them. Once she arrived, she stepped out onto it, expecting to face stiff resistance. However, all she faced were a series of Halberd-class defense turrets. Using her Screw Attack, she somersaulted towards the nearest of the turrets and shattered it upon colliding with it. She then moved on to the next turret and spun into it as well, destroying it. She repeated the process twelve more times until each of the turrets were destroyed, their wreckage littering the floor.

After the final turret had been destroyed, she examined the area for any signs of further resistance. She quickly encountered several more SATs emerging from a corridor that led to the Old Senate Chamber. She switched to her Plasma Beam and mowed down the robots. After she defeated the robots, she did not stop to admire the once majestic paintings that lined the area, and it was probably good that she did not, for many of them had been damaged in the first Battle of Earth. It would have been the same had she gone to Statuary Hall, for the resistance faced by the invading Federation forces in the capture of the Capitol Building had been fierce. After having felled the robots, she entered the corridor and proceeded to make her way to a door to the right. There were still two Galactic Federation Marines standing outside what had once been the Old Senate Chamber, and when they saw the bounty hunter approach, they opened fire on her. Remembering from her first time meeting with President Richardson, she searched for the door that led the Old Senate Chamber and found it to her right. With no hesitation, she entered the chamber. Not having much cover to hide behind, Samus allowed them to take the shots at her suit and they launched a furious volley of energy blasts at her, hitting her suit a few times, inflicting minimal damage to her shields. Samus retaliated with several blasts of energy from her Wave Beam. Trios of purple, undulating pulses of electrical energy rocketed towards the Marines at nearly the speed of light and struck them, draining them of their shields and shorting out their suits and weapons. The electricity also inflicted damage to the Marines, themselves, but it was not fatal and they were merely stunned. The stunned Marines then fell onto the ground, where they would remain for the time being. Once she had brought down the Marines, she proceeded to make her way through the door.

Upon entering the Old Senate Chamber, now command center for the Earth's Planetary Defense Grid and planetary shields, she found that it was just as she had initially remembered it one year ago, minus the fact that Federation personnel were at the consoles. When she entered, the security forces, six guards wearing Federation Army Trooper power armor raised their weapons and took aim at her. As she rushed to take cover behind a pillar, she zeroed in on the group of Army Troopers and fired several uncharged blasts from her Wave Beam. The blasts struck three of the troopers, shorting out their weapons and armor, and stunning them, causing them to fall to the floor. The other troopers, however, opened fire on the hunter, spraying a volley of blue ice blasts her way. Samus took cover behind the pillar, which was peppered with the Freeze Gun blasts and had numerous sections covered in ice. Samus retaliated with a volley of three more Wave Beam shots. Each shot struck an Army Trooper and one went down and a second had suffered system damage to his suit. A second volley of Wave Beam fire was more than sufficient to take down the remaining troopers.

After the security for the personnel inside the command center had fallen, Samus waved her arm cannon at each of them and said, "The building is surrounded and it won't be long before more Earth and Federation in Exile troops arrive. If you surrender now, I can see to it that you will be treated well. If not, then I cannot guarantee your safety once more troops come through that door." As if to echo her sentiment, the sounds voices and footfalls could be heard approaching.

Many of the officers and workers took her advice and surrendered their weapons and rose from their stations, showing that they were unarmed. One officer, however, was not so willing to surrender. General Korro was not willing to admit defeat just yet. He went over to a secret compartment and drew out a Plasma Cannon and took aim at Samus. Seeing his move, the bounty hunter dashed to her right and fired a single Wave Beam shot at Korro just as he fired his plasma blast. The blue plasma blast sailed past Samus and blew a hole in the wall not too far away from the door. Her Wave Beam blast, however, hit its mark and electricity sparked across the Star Elf's uniform. The general then fell to the ground, stunned but alive, his weapon rendered useless by the Wave Beam.

As if on cue, what looked like a legion of Earth and Federation in Exile Marines and Army Troopers stormed into the command center. As they did so, Samus called, "Clear!" in a loud, clear voice. Those who had surrendered were then taken by Marines and/or Army Troopers and led out of the center. Those who tried to resist, however, were unceremoniously knocked unconscious, or worse, with a strike to the head and then dragged out of the chamber. Out of courtesy, the soldiers would have the resisters looked at by a medical staff, but they were not treated with as much compassion as those who surrendered willingly. As soon as the previous occupants were led away, President Richardson, General Hastings, and the members of the platoon that not remained at the Radio Tower with Captain Falcon filed into the room. A group of engineers and computer experts followed them in and took the now vacant stations all around the room. Once they were situated, General Hastings called out to them, "Okay, first thing's first. Take control of the Planetary Defense Grid. We need to get those platforms under our control."

With hardly a word, the computer experts got to work. The President and general watched them work as they went about taking back control of the Planetary Defense Grid. After a couple minutes, one of the lead workers called out to the general, informing him, "We have reestablished control over the Defense Grid. We are ready to fire on the enemy fleet on your command."

"Good," General Hastings replied. "Now, take back control of the planetary shields. We need to open a hole in them so we can allow General Malkovich's ground troops through to the planet."

"Yes, sir," the computer workers replied as they went to work.

Meanwhile, up in orbit, Admiral Dane's fleet was engaged in a vicious battle with the Galactic Federation fleet that was supposed to protect the planet. The Federation fleet had sustained severe casualties in the earlier parts of the battle, but now, things were looking a little more even. Still, his fleet was giving better than it was receiving. His starfighter forces had decimated the ranks of the enemy starfighters and the overall superiority of the Federation in Exile starships was now more apparent. Still, the ships in orbit exchanged energy and missile fire with each other, though, Admiral Dane's fleet was beginning to wear down the enemy fleet even more. At this time, they now outnumbered the enemy forces and were using their other advantages to deal with the fleet.

Lieutenant Commander Bly glanced down at her console and noticed that the Planetary Defense Grid was online and had fired its missiles, but they were not targeting Dane's fleet. "Sir, the Defense Grid has launched a volley of missiles, but we're not the target!"

Admiral Dane glanced down at Bly and asked, "Can you tell whom the missiles are targeting?"

His question was answered when the viewscreen showed large numbers of red blips of the Federation fleet disappear. "Sir," Lieutenant Gates called to him, "I'm receiving word that Earth and Federation in Exile forces have retaken the Capitol Building in America! We're back in control of the Defense Grid."

The bridge crew looked out and saw red lances of energy erupt from the cannons of the Heavy Defense Platforms and turrets, cutting swaths of destruction through the Federation fleet. In the first few seconds of the fighting, two hundred ships had been annihilated, with another hundred having been heavily damaged. The bridge crew gave a cheer as the tide, which was already in their favor, was now tilted even more in their favor. He glanced over at Adam and said, "General Malkovich, get your troops ready. It's time for us to take back Earth."

Adam grinned as he tapped into the ship's internal speakers and said, "All Marines and Army Troopers, assemble in the landing bays. The time has come. We're about to reinforce the military and resistance forces on Earth." He then left the bridge so as to be able to brief his troops on the upcoming battle.

After a few moments, Admiral Dane shifted the screen to the battle and noticed that the lines in the center of the Federation fleet were thinning greatly. Opening a channel to the rest of the fleet, he commanded, "All ships, target the center lines of the Federation fleet. Once we punch a hole through, we surge through and achieve orbit over Earth! All starfighters, as we move through, target the flanks of the enemy fleet with your missiles and keep them focused on dealing with you."

A chorus of affirmatives rang in over the comm and after the other ships had acknowledged the order, he said, "Attack!"

The Federation in Exile fleet immediately concentrated its fire on the center of the fleet. Energy fire and missiles erupted from the weapons ports of the capital ships and targeted the weakened central ranks of the Federation fleet. As if the surface was coordinating the attack with the fleet, the Heavy Defense Platforms split their fire between the thinned lines in the center and the rest of the Federation fleet, keeping them honest and preventing them from being able to focus on the Federation in Exile starships. Federation ships in the center lines of the fleet exploded in magnificent displays of light and flame and soon, a hole appeared. Once the hole appeared, the surviving Federation in Exile starships surged through, with the defense platforms and starfighters providing covering fire for the fleet. More Federation ships were lost in the fighting and its fleet was whittled down to less than one thousand ships.

As the Federation in Exile fleet surged through the hole, the rest of the Federation fleet retreated to beyond the moon, trying to stay outside of weapons range of the Federation in Exile fleet, knowing that there was little they could do to stop it. All they could do was call for reinforcements, and hope that enough ships arrived to allow them to take the planet.

Down on Earth, Cyrus stood inside his command post just outside of Goldenrod City along with Mercury and Alakazam. Things were looking grim. Many of the Team Galactic grunts and leaders had already gotten the idea to use psychic Pokémon in order to allow various forces to communicate with each other and share information. However, only Alakazams were able to communicate with the fleet in orbit. Cyrus glanced over at Mercury and asked, "What is the situation?"

"We have good news and bad news," Mercury replied. "The good news is that we have managed to take control of Goldenrod City, for the moment. Our forces in other areas of Johto and in Sinnoh are reporting similar progress. However, the bad news is that the Capitol Building has been captured, and General Korro is in the custody of the Federation in Exile."

Cyrus's eyes went wide. "The Capitol Building?"

Mercury nodded. "In addition, reports from the Pokémon indicate that the Defense Grid has opened fire on our fleet and is supporting Admiral Dane's forces. As a result, a hole in out fleet's lines opened and the Federation in Exile has orbital superiority over us. Not only that, but the planetary shields have opened over the Japan and over the East Coast of the United States of America. The remnants of Earth's military are about to get reinforcements."

"No!" Cyrus cried. He could not believe it. If he did not hurry, then there would be no chance of being able to get to the Sinjoh Ruins. He then told Mercury, "Tell Charon and Venus to hurry up with the research and energy scan. We know that the Sinjoh Ruins are somewhere north of Johto and is not part of Kanto."

"I'm on it," Mercury said and he relayed the order to Alakazam, who gave a grunt and nodded. Cyrus could only wait in dread as time was suddenly against him. If they did not manage to find the location of the Sinjoh Ruins soon, he would have to fall back on his plan to use Mount Coronet. He only hoped that the Hi'Gor and his Techno Knights had already dealt with the Space Pirates on the mountain.

Cyrus then called over to Mercury once more and said, "Send a transmission to the fleet and tell them to call in _every_ ship we have."

Mercury's eyes flashed in shock. "Every ship?"

"Yes!" the Chairman roared. "Every ship we can muster! We need more time in order to accomplish our objective and there's no way that Admiral Dane is going to allow the remnants of our fleet to send down reinforcements to help us. If nothing else, the reinforcements in orbit will force Dane to keep his starfighters in orbit and force him to call up the transports once they deliver their troops, so the ground troops will come down here with little to no air support. Now call in everything we've got! And make sure that once the Star Fox Team arrives, that they get into the Earth's atmosphere. We'll need their help in dealing with Samus and anyone who gets too close to us."

"Understood, sir," Mercury said in an uncertain tone. While he could understand why Cyrus wanted to bring in every ship the Federation still had, he knew that such a call might be suspicious to many other members of the Federation. And the last thing that he needed was for the Federation to stop supporting him and view him the same way it did Elric. Cyrus could only look into the sky and wonder if the shooting stars that he was beginning to see in the sky were the transports coming to land the Federation in Exile army.

Back in orbit, Admiral Dane watched as his fleet assumed a standard orbit over Earth, forming a line ten thousand kilometers in front of the Heavy Defense Platforms and other planetary defenses. The remnants of the Federation fleet continued to sit just outside of weapons range and wait for Dane's fleet to make its move. Dane was staring at the viewscreen when Lieutenant Gates interrupted his thoughts, saying, "Sir, the rest of the fleet wants to know whether it should engage the remaining Federation starships."

Dane looked at the screen for a few moments before saying, "No. We'll give them the chance to surrender before we destroy them. We'll give them the mercy they did not give us in the first battle. Open a channel to the Federation flagship."

A beep sounded and Gates said, "Channel open." The image of a grizzled Simian with blond hair and beard appeared on the screen.

"Admiral Morg, this is Admiral Dane of the Galactic Federation in Exile. Your fleet is outnumbered, we have control of the planet's defense grid and we have achieved orbit over Earth. Surrender now or withdraw your forces. If you surrender, we will treat you and your crews well. If you withdraw, we will not pursue you. If you do not surrender, or withdraw, though, we will take that as you wishing to continue this fight. If you do so, we cannot guarantee your survival."

Morg grinned and replied, "You are in no position to be offering any chance for surrender."

"Sir, we're detecting numerous subspace windows opening a fifty thousand kilometers to the rear of the Federation fleet!" came the voice of Lieutenant Commander Bly.

"On screen!" Admiral Dane cried. The viewscreen was then filled with the image of dozens of subspace windows opening behind the fleet. Just then, dozens of Federation ships flooded from each window. The screen filled with ships, and some of them were massive, far larger than even the Gehenna-class dreadnaught, of which there were at least a dozen coming onto the scene. Those massive ships soon broke apart into several smaller ships the size of cruisers. Some broke off into as many as a dozen ships. Bly looked down at her sensors and reported, "Sir, sensors show six thousand new contacts appearing behind the Federation fleet. At least two hundred of them are N'Kren ships, with a hundred more being Ylla. At least a dozen are singularity dreadnaughts. And more ships are still coming." After a few moments, Bly reported once more, "Sir, among the new contacts are over three dozen Cornerian cruisers, battleships, and carriers; among them is the _Great Fox Two_!"

Dane looked over at the screen and saw the new blips appearing on the screen. "Darn it," he grumbled. Things were beginning to look worse. Cyrus was pulling out all the stops. With the singularity dreadnaughts, the Federation fleet and its allies would be able to open a hole in the shields of Earth's planetary shields and use that hole to send down reinforcements of their own. And if the Star Fox Team were among the reinforcements, then Earth's forces would have trouble. Still, he was not surprised at this recent turn of events. He had expected to see reinforcements coming in, and his spies indicated that the Federation had at least six thousand ships in reserve. Still, his problem was the fact that there were likely many more ships waiting in the wings or already on their way. "We better find Cyrus soon," Dane said to himself. It was then that Admiral Morg came in over the comm and bragged, "Who wants to surrender now?"

"We'll never surrender to criminals like you who distort the great alliance that is the Galactic Federation!" Admiral Dane declared proudly. He then made a throat-cutting gesture that was the signal to cut the transmission.

Turning to Gates, he ordered, "Send the signal now. Tell the rest of our forces that they're needed. Also, try to get the rest of our members to send us a few more ships. We'll need them for the upcoming battle."

"Aye sir," Gates responded. After carrying out the orders, she asked Dane, "Sir, what difference will a few dozen extra ships make against a fleet like that? Cyrus is bringing in everything, and it looks like the six thousand reserve ships may only be the tip of the iceberg."

"I know," Admiral Dane replied in a melancholy tone. "However, if we manage to hold out long enough to get our reinforcements down to Earth and find Cyrus and stop him, then the fighting will not need to continue, for a while at least."

Gates then nodded, understanding the Admiral's position. Dane could only hope that the fleet could hold out for long enough, or that a miracle occurred and the scales at least evened out as more subspace windows opened and hundreds of more ships entered the fray on the side of the Galactic Federation. The Planetary Defense Grid and shields would only hold out for so long against the singularity dreadnaughts of the N'Kren. Pushing a button on his chair, Dane opened a channel to General Malkovich and said, "You'd better be ready for takeoff, for the Federation's reinforcements have arrived."

"We're almost ready," came the voice of Adam Malkovich.

Dane then gave a sigh. Taking the Earth back from the Federation had been the easy part of the mission. Holding onto it would be the hard part.

Meanwhile, flying over the Sinnoh Region of Japan, Hi'Gor and his twelve Techno Knights made their way over to Mount Coronet as quickly as possible. They could see the mountain off in the distance, but they were still many miles away from it. He then called two of his Techno Knights forward and he said, "Scout the area in front of us and be on the lookout for anything that looks like an early warning sensor. Should you find anything that looks like a sensor, destroy it."

"Understood, sir," the two Techno Knights responded.

They surged ahead of the main force and scanned the area, using their suits' sensors to try to lock onto any radar or other type of scanning signal. Their sensors almost immediately detected a group of enemy sensors in the distance. Glancing at each other and nodding, they banked to their left and powered their weapons. Upon spying a suspicious-looking globe-like device that their sensors indicated was a sensor of some sort. Recognizing that the sensor design was one that was in use solely by the Space Pirates, they pointed their staves at the sensor and let loose with a relatively low-powered blast of energy. The blast of energy melted the sensor into a puddle of molten metal, destroying it. They continued to scout the way forward, and picked off a second sensor. They continued towards the mountain and picked off all of the sensors that they could find. After a few minutes, they had cleared a path towards the mountain, and hopefully remained below the enemy's sensors in the process.

Once they had cleared a path close to the mountain, they headed back to the main force. Upon their return, they reported, "The sensors of the Space Pirates have been destroyed. We are clear to launch our attack."

"Then let's go," Hi'Gor urged. "We have a Pirate force to slaughter." And with that, the Techno Knights followed Hi'Gor to Mount Coronet.

Beneath Mount Coronet, the destruction of the strategically placed sensors did not go unnoticed by the Space Pirates. In their makeshift command center beneath the mountain, the ten remaining Space Pirate Commanders of High Command watched as screen after screen went blank. The Space Pirate Troopers operating the sensor consoles turned back to High Command and reported, "My lords, our sensors are going blank."

"We can see that," one of the Space Pirate Commanders retorted indignantly. The screens continued to go dark second by second until each one showed nothing more than static.

"That's it," one of the Space Pirate Troopers said in a defeated tone. "We're totally blind now. What should we do?" the Trooper asked, turning back to the members of High Command.

"We get eyes up there immediately!" another of the Space Pirate Commanders roared in reply. Turning to one of the comm officers, he yelled, "Get the Golden Zebesians up to the surface of the mountain. They'll be our eyes so we can see what we're goin' up against."

"Understood, sir," the comm officer replied.

"Also, tell Ridley to get to the Heavy Freighter's remains and suit up. The armor we're designing for him should be finished. We may need him to fight should we fall under attack."

"Understood," the Pirate responded.

"Would it not be wiser to send up Kraid? Ridley's armor is still unproven and, despite the resources we have spent reviving him, Kraid is more expendable than Ridley," came the voice of Mother Brain just behind the figures of Space Pirate High Command.

"No," another Space Pirate Commander responded, shaking his head. We still have to test Kraid in his new form. The Golden Zebesians are also quite powerful, themselves, but still expendable. We can use them for now as sentries and lookouts for the time being."

"And if they are killed by an invading force?" came Mother Brain's response.

The Space Pirate Commanders each grinned. "Then we'll send out our ultimate weapons: our Techno Lords, Rodney and Virginia Aran."


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16:

The Federation fleet sat beyond the orbit of the moon, just outside of weapons range of Dane's forces and the Planetary Defense Grid. Admiral Dane watched the screen as Lieutenant Commander Bly informed him, "Sir, the enemy is launching their starfighters!"

Over one hundred and eighty thousand new blips appeared on sensors. Clouds of red filled the tactical screens as the starfighters sought to find their way to the planet below and/or try to intercept the transports and other fighters that would go down to assist Earth's forces. "Tell our ships that they have to launch the transports now!" Dane directed. "Also, get the atmospheric starfighter transports loaded and into space as well so they can deliver the fighter support that they'll need to get to the battle zones on world. Also, tell them that once they deliver their troops and armor to the surface, to return because we'll need their help in dealing with the Federation fleet and its allies."

"Understood, sir," Lieutenant Gates said at the communications console.

Looking out into the distance, he noticed that the Federation fleet was still making no move to attack. They were content to wait until the rest of the fleet formed up with them. Dane knew that he had no time to waste. He still had a chance to slow the progress of the opposing fleet. He knew that until his reinforcements arrived, that his forces were still going to be outnumbered over two-to-one, he could at least harry the enemy fleet. If he could at least slow down the enemy approach, he could buy some time for the ground forces to launch. "Tell all fighters that still have their missile ordnance to form up and make sure that they have a clear line to the enemy fleet. Tell them to go after the Federation and Cornerian ships. The N'Kren and Ylla ships will not move out of formation, and besides, they probably won't sustain all that much damage anyway, but we just might be able to get the Cornerian ships and Federation ships out of position. Once their ordnance is expended, though, tell them to jump back here at once. Also, ready our point-defense systems, but divert as much power as you can to the shields and primary weapons. Save for the Stilettos, some Cornerian Fighters, Arwings, N'Kren, and Ylla fighters, assuming the last two even used fighters, none of the Federation fighters are warp capable.

"Next, tell our fleet to form ranks: Archangel-class battlecrusiers and Olympus-class battleships in front, missile frigates, destroyers, and cruisers in back. Get our front lines just inside of our own weapons range. Once inside weapons range of the enemy, tell them to focus on the Olympus-class battleships, Gehenna-class dreadnaughts, and any Cornerian Pleiades-class cruisers, and Cornerian Assault Carriers. The Heavy Defense Platforms can harry any enemy force that tries to outflank us until we deal with them. Missile frigates and destroyers, fire whatever missiles you can into the enemy fleet. Target the N'Kren singularity dreadnaughts, Ylla ships, and the _Great Fox Two_ if you can. I want those ships to be on notice and if we managed to take out a couple of them, so much the better."

Once Gates had transmitted the Admiral's orders to the rest of the fleet, she told him, "The fleet has acknowledged your orders and is standing by,"

"Tell the fighters to jump now!"

Gates relayed the command to the rest of the fleet and Dane watched as the fighters disappeared. Once they had reappeared in the enemy fleet formations, he ordered, "All designated ships, mark your targets and fire!"

The fleet acknowledged the order by opening fire on the remnants of the initial Federation defense fleet over Earth. The Archangel and Olympus-class ships had a field day pounding on the enemy fleet without having to waste their own missiles from outside the weapons range of the enemy starships. Still, Admiral Dane knew that if the commanders of the reinforcement fleet had a single brain between each of them, that they would be much quicker to jump into their own weapons range and not let the his forces pound on them like Morg did.

Standing onboard the bridge of the newest Gehenna-class dreadnaught, _Lucifer_, Fleet Admiral Breaz, a male Star Elf with short bright red hair, and red eyes stood near his command chair. The bridge was massive, far larger than the bridge of an Olympus-class battleship, and with more than twice the crew as well. In addition, Breaz had the a dozen security officers onboard in order to ensure that no one on the bridge was lax in their duties, or was sending information to the enemy. He hated the humans of Earth with a passion. Secretly, he had known about the Magic Lords and their workings on Earth and about Elric's attempt to kill the humans. While he was not loyal to them, at the moment, he would not resist them should they return. He had no problems with Elric's plans at all, and neither did most of his initial fleet before his promotion to Fleet Admiral. He suspected that Cyrus was up to something, but if it _did_ sacrifice the Earth, he had no problems with it. As long as the Star Elves were not destroyed in the process, it did not bother him. And there was no way that Cyrus's plan would harm his people.

He watched as the remains of Admiral Morg's fleet were pounded into oblivion by the combined fire of the front lines of Dane's fleet. "Stupid monkey," he derided. "You outnumbered the enemy, and had the Defense Grid at your back as well, and you inflicted minimal losses while losing your entire force. You _deserved_ to die," he scoffed.

He scoffed at the humans and their paltry resistance. He would show them what a Federation fleet commanded by a competent commander was capable of. He glared at the communications officer, a pretty female Star Elf just barely out of the academy, and ordered, "Ensign Teeta, tell the rest of the fleet to keep the missile frigates to the rear of the fleet and tell them to lock onto the enemy fleet. We'll play Admiral Dane's own game, here," he finished with a grin.

"Yes, sir," came the ensign's response. After a few seconds, she reported, "The fleet has locked onto the enemy ships."

"Then by all means, tell them to fire," came Breaz's cool response.

Outside, the missile frigates of the Federation fleet opened fire on the enemy forces just as the Federation in Exile starfighters jumped into the fleet and began making attack runs on numerous starships, many of them the missile frigates of the Federation fleet. The missile erupted from the ports of the missile frigates and traveled across the void of space towards the Federation in Exile fleet that was now defending the planet. Unlike many of the ships in the Galactic Federation fleet, which were mainly planetary defense ships used by the many races in the Galactic Federation that were not included in the previous Galactic Federation's fleet, the ships commanded by Admiral Dane were all Federation warships and were equipped with not only powerful energy cannons and missiles, but also with point-defense systems. Scarlet pulses of energy lashed out at the incoming missiles and multiple explosions erupted over five thousand kilometers away from the fleet. After the initial wave of explosions, the brief, but bright, fireballs that signaled the explosion of a missile started to get closer and closer to the fleet. Dane knew that not all of the missiles would be shot down. Some would get through, but their effect would be greatly weakened since the ships shifted most of their shields forward, only leaving enough shields on the rear arcs to block out the radiation that would be emitted when the matter and the antimatter in the missiles collided and annihilated. Enough of the missiles managed to get through that two dozen corvettes were destroyed or crippled, give Griffin-class frigates also being destroyed with three mores suffering severe shield damage, with one losing its forward weapons array, and five Pixie light cruiser suffering moderate to heavy damage with one being destroyed. However, the losses were far less than what they could have been and the Archangel and Olympus-class ships suffered only light shield damage, their point-defense systems easily being able to handle the missile volleys sent against them. In addition to the relatively light damage that was being inflicted on the Federation in Exile fleet, Breaz's fleet was also suffering damage.

Back in Breaz's fleet, squadrons of Wraiths and Warthogs, being covered by Katanas, Stilettos, and Daggers, were making attack runs on the missile frigates of the Federation fleet. At least twelve missile frigates were destroyed with ten more suffering heavy damage and being taken out of the fight. In addition, many Federation starfighters were being destroyed by the Katanas, Stilettos, and Daggers that were covering the Wraiths and Warthogs. Once the Wraiths and Warthogs had expended their ordnance, they turned and jumped out of the fleet and back to Dane's lines, along with their support fighters, where they could be resupplied and rearmed. When all was said and done, the fighters, alone, had destroyed twenty-four missile frigates and crippled eighteen others, and destroying four Cornerian Cruisers, two Cornerian Assault Carriers, along with too many Federation starfighters, all while suffering minimal losses in return.

Not to be outdone by the fighters, the missile frigates and destroyers locked onto the N'Kren singularity ships and Ylla warships and opened fire, their primary target being the N'Kren singularity dreadnaughts. Missile after missile streaked towards the singularity dreadnaughts, but they held firm under the assault. The N'Kren commanders knew that their ships were far superior to the Federation ships, but still, if the pounding was great enough, even a giant could be taken down, even if it was a death by a thousand cuts. Eventually, the missiles managed to breach the shields of two of the dreadnaughts and started colliding with the hulls of the formidable ships. Orange fires erupted from the missile impacts and explosions, the ships bleeding equipment and crew for a few seconds before force fields activated, sealing the ship once more. Still, missiles continued to pepper the unshielded ships and after a while, they could not take any more punishment. The ships cracked apart slowly, fire erupting from the center of one of the ships was literally split in half. The other ship's core was breached and it went up in a magnificent display of fire and shrapnel. Missiles also struck more dreadnaughts and by the time the first barrage was complete, three of the dreadnaughts had been destroyed, one of the ships in Breaz's front lines being a N'Kren dreadnaught that was taken down by sustained fire from a task force of Olympus-class battleships and two Archangel-class battlecruisers, with three of the Olympus-class battleships suffering severe shield damage in the fighting since the dreadnaught had the weapons range to fight, and two more suffering heavy damage. In addition, numerous other ships were destroyed, including several squadrons of corvettes and gunships, numerous Ba'al and Moloch-class frigates, Unicorn-class destroyers, a few Asgard-class cruisers, two Olympus-class battleships, as well as a Gehenna-class dreadnaught.

Admiral Breaz seethed as the reports were coming in. He had not anticipated Admiral Dane jumping starfighters into the middle of his fleet in order to catch it off guard, but catch them off guard, Dane did. The damage inflicted was staggering. He made a mental note to shoot the battle planner for this grievous oversight after the battle was won, assuming he survived the fighting. Opening a channel to the rest of the fleet, he yelled, "All ships, launch fighters. We need fighter support to protect us from the enemy missile frigates."

Breaz grimaced. Save for his Stilettos, almost all of which were outfitted with an anti-starfighter package, he had no ships that could jump to the enemy fleet and pound on it the way Dane's forces had done to his own ships. And simply sending in wave after wave of fighters was also no good since the Federation in Exile starships had very effective point-defense systems. They would mow down the starfighters, and their missile barrages, before they could even get close. He could jump his ships into weapons range of the enemy, but then the enemy would be able to launch a concentrated assault on his fleet and without fighter support, the missiles from the missile frigates and other ships of the line would tear large holes in his fleet, while his ships' firepower would generally be cut in half due to the fighters and point-defense systems of Dane's ships being able to protect them. In the end, he sighed and said, "Helm, take us towards the enemy. We're going to jump into weapons range. Tell the ships of our fleet to shift all shields forward. Then jump with us. We need to get in range of the enemy, so we can pound on them."

A chorus of affirmatives came through on the comms, but he sighed. He knew that his fleet would take a beating before they got within weapons range of the enemy and given the fact that his starfighters were restricted to sublight speeds, save for the Stilettos, many of his missiles would be used to provide cover for his starfighter forces to fight their way past the Earth's defenses and deal with the troops on the ground. He opened a channel to the _Great Fox II_ and said, "Fox, get your team ready and load your fighters for a long mission. When we go, we'll need you to get on the ground. Even if most of our fighters are stuck up in orbit, if you can fly through any shield holes and get through, you'll be worth a crap load of fighters down on the surface."

"Will do, Admiral," Fox stated, giving a salute before the channel was cut. Admiral Breaz could only smirk. Star Fox was such a noble mercenary group. To have them serve Cyrus would go against everything they believe in…if they ever learned of his secrets, that is. As long as they never learned of Cyrus's true nature, then they would be the fiercest of allies for the Galactic Federation. And he knew the real reason that Cyrus wanted them down on Earth. He wanted them to deal with Samus Aran. While Breaz did not view Samus as the threat that Cyrus did, he had to admit that she was pretty impressive from what he had read about her. Admiral Breaz then sighed and he gave the order, "Go!"

Numerous subspace windows opened and the fleet disappeared from sight for an instant before emerging from warp approximately forty thousand kilometers away from Dane's fleet. Immediately upon emerging from warp, the fleet opened fire on Dane's forces, inflicting shield damage to the opposing ships, but not being able to do too much more, for the tactical officer, a female Lizardian, broke in and cried, "Sir, I'm detecting numerous subspace windows opening in front of us!"

"What?" blurted Breaz. Staring at the bridge window, he witnessed the subspace windows opening and he immediately yelled, "Get back! Get our ships out of range and call back the fighters!" For he knew exactly what was coming through those windows.

Emerging from the subspace windows were dozens, and sometimes even more than a hundred, Federation in Exile starships. He watched as the entire fleet emerged from subspace and opened fire on his ships. Being caught off guard, his ships were not able to mount an effective counterattack against the new arrivals and they were forced to retreat back beyond weapons range of the enemy. As they retreated, the Federation in Exile fleet, bolstered by their reinforcements, opened fire on the retreating fleet. Many of the ships in the front lines were destroyed as they fell back out of the weapons range of the enemy ships. Breaz could only hope that the missile frigates and destroyers of the Federation in Exile fleet had expended most of their missiles in the previous fights. If they had not, then Dane would be able to strike with impunity against his forces and would be able to inflict severe casualties. Looking over at his tactical officer, Breaz commanded, "Commander Vraz, tell me the status of the launch of the transports and shuttles from the Federation in Exile fleet."

Vraz answered, "The fleet is just now launching its transports and support fighters."

Breaz scowled as he heard the report of his tactical officer. He then looked back down at Teeta and told her, "Open a channel to the _Great Fox Two_."

"Channel open," the young Star Elf reported.

Breaz then spoke. "Star Fox, do you still have any of those stealth transports that we loaned to you when you officially joined our cause?"

Fox nodded. "We do," he answered. "Why?"

Breaz then grinned. "Because I want you to load your Arwings, and however many other fighters you can cram on those transports onto them and jump the transport to the holes in the shield. After that, go about your missions on the planet below."

"Yes sir," Fox replied, nodding. "Sir, you _do_ realize that we'll likely lose the transport once we appear over Earth's shield. Despite its stealth systems, Earth and the Federation in Exile have shown themselves to be able to detect stealth ships."

"I know," Admiral Breaz replied. "Don't worry about it. You won't have to reimburse us should it be destroyed."

That prompted Fox to smile. "Thanks," he said genuinely. When the channel closed, all Breaz could do was wait. Now that the numbers were much more even, especially with the Heavy Defense Platforms, he would have to wait for the second wave of reinforcements before he felt safe continuing the attack on Earth. He only hoped that Cyrus would accomplish his objectives soon. If he was unable to do so, then the chances of Earth and/or the Galactic Federation in Exile capturing or killing him greatly increased.

Meanwhile, in the Sinnoh Region of Japan, Hi'Gor and his dozen Techno Knights made their final approach towards Mount Coronet. As they approached, he told his forces, "Scan for any defenses around the mountain."

One of the Techno Knight's eyes began to glow as he swept his gaze over the large mountain in the distance. After a few seconds, his armor's eyes returned to normal and he reported, "Sir, we have numerous laser and plasma turrets surrounding the mountain. The defenses seem suited to ward off a starfighter, gunship, and transport assault. They are not suited for dealing with capital ships, even small capital ships like corvettes or heavy freighters and transports. Also, we're detecting a dozen Space Pirate soldiers and a few semi-organic statues as well. The statues' weaponry is unknown at this time, but the Pirates are using standard energy blasters and plasma missiles. The Pirates' biology and armor indicate that they have strands of Chozo DNA inside of them and are using some antiquated Chozo technology, or knockoffs of Chozo technology. In addition, I detect what could be the remains of a Space Pirate Heavy Freighter on the far side of the mountain, but the energy of the Spear Pillar is interfering with my sensors, so I cannot confirm that yet."

Hi'Gor grinned. "Then destroying this base should be fairly easy," he noted. He had heard that the Chozo used antiquated knockoffs of Chozo technology before, but he "Okay, ready your weapons. Our orders are to take the mountain and kill all of the Pirates, not destroy it. He needs this mountain intact in case his mission to the Sinjoh Ruins doesn't pan out."

"Yes, sir," the Techno Knights responded in unison. They then charged towards the mountain.

Down on the mountain, the dozen Golden Zebesians were scanning the area for any sign of intruders. Sure enough, one of them caught sight of the approaching force of Techno Knights. Immediately upon spotting the approaching force, the spotter ran to the others, and frantically screamed, "We've got attackers in the distance! From the looks of the armor they're wearing, they're Techno Soldiers!"

This caused the other Golden Zebesians, along with a dozen Space Pirate Militia, to run around the mountain frantically, screaming and bemoaning their impending doom, for they knew that they were no match for the Techno Knights. The enforcer for the Militia soldiers then roared, "Calm down you maggots! There may be a dozen N'Kren soldiers comin' here, but that doesn't mean we're guaranteed to die. After all, the Hunter's made a mess of these things, and enough of us can take her down. So that means that these guys can't be _that_ tough. Now show 'em what Space Pirates are made of and man your stations!"

Despite the rumors of the Techno Knights' power, the fact that there had been evidence that Samus had taken on numerous such soldiers, with the only confirmed sighting of a battle with one of them being against a Technoble, one step above a Techno Knight, with Samus beating said soldier handily. Eventually, the Space Pirate Militia soldiers did as they were ordered and they manned the laser turrets. Their enforcer then activated his comlink and calmly reported, "High Command, we've spotted thirteen enemies on approach. They're Techno Knights, with one of 'em ridin' a crystal skiff of some sort and havin' more ornate armor than the others. We'll need everyone we can get to their posts as quickly as possible."

"That one's a Technoble," a raspy voice replied on the other end of the line. "We'll alert our secret weapons. Get your men to their stations."

"Already there," the Pirate Trooper reported. "We'll need the others to get to their positions manning the plasma turrets. They're the only things I can think of that might have a chance of damaging one of these things, unless you authorize the use of _our_ Knights."

"We will consider it. Just hold off the Techno Knights for as long as you can. We'll be sending up help shortly."

"Will do," the Pirate reported.

In the basement of the mountain, the Pirate Commanders of High Command conferred on what they should do. "Techno Knights are powerful opponents, even more so than the Hunter. We must use our Techno Lords to combat them," one of the Pirate Commanders insisted.

"And reveal to the rest of the galaxy our location, as well as the fact that we have Techno Lords?" another blurted incredulously. "The Hunter has been sighted on Earth and has been shown to be able to own a Technoble in combat."

"That is only due to the Technoble's lack of shields," the first Commander retorted. "Techno Lords like Rodney and Virginia _have_ shields. They can fire their energy weapons without having to make themselves vulnerable for a brief second."

"And that's why we shouldn't risk using them just yet," the second Commander reiterated. "Let the Golden Zebesians deal with the Techno Knights and Technoble. If they can exploit that weakness, then we can avoid having to reveal our full strength. If they can't, _then_ we can deploy our Techno Lords, but not until."

"I agree with P'Faz," a third Pirate Commander said, indicating the second Commander. "We should not tip our hand until we have to. The Golden Zebesians and the Space Pirate Troopers outside are expendable, despite our recent losses. We should withhold using our strongest weapons until we are forced to. The last thing we need is to attract the Hunter's attention."

"I agree," came the voice of Mother Brain. "I believe that we should let the Zebesians and the Space Pirate Troopers manning the cannons deal with them for the time being. Should they fail without inflicting any damage to the enemy, _then_ we will send out the Hunter's parents to deal with them. Should that fail, though, we will have to evacuate this base. In addition, do not send Kraid or Ridley to deal with them. If they are known to be on Earth, then we may as well be screaming to Samus that we're here and that she should come kill us."

"Understood, Mother," the Space Pirates of High Command responded as they turned to her and bowed. Mother Brain inwardly smiled. That display would have infuriated Ridley to no end. She could feel the rush of energy coming into her form. The power she had back on Zebes was restored, at least in terms of raw destructive power. While she wanted to fight Samus once more to avenge her first two losses, she wanted to do so on _her_ terms.

Back in the orbit of Earth, onboard the _G.F.S. Olympus_, Marines and Army Troopers were boarding the numerous transports and assault shuttles inside the hangar bays of the ship, among the transports were two Aries-class transports, each of which was capable of holding over one hundred Marines, plus their equipment. Once the troopers were all loaded onto the ships, the soldiers took their seats and strapped themselves in. After strapping in, all the soldiers could do was wait, and pray that they would make it down to the planet in one piece.

The transports inside the main hangar bay of the _Olympus_ engaged their repulsor lifts and rose from the floor, turning towards the exit to the bay. The force field that held in the air dropped once the ships were ready to depart and, one by one, the ships left the _Olympus_ and after clearing the hangar bay, they turned and headed towards the Earth. They were joined by six other Aries-class transports, plus numerous Assault Shuttles and Heavy Assault Shuttles from the _Olympus_ as well as a dozen transports from the other Olympus-class battleships. Numerous transports from the Archangel-class battlecruisers, and the numerous Asgard-class heavy cruisers, Midgard-class cruisers, and troopships throughout the fleet also joined the transports from the _Olympus_ as they all made their way down to Earth in an attempt to prevent Cyrus from destroying not only humanity's homeworld, but also the entire universe as well. All in all, more than a million troops were going to be added to the numerous battles being fought on Earth. And this was just the first wave. Admiral Dane, General Malkovich, and the other Federation in Exile military commanders could only hope that those forces would be enough to turn the tide of the ground war and give them a good chance at either capturing or killing Cyrus.

Meanwhile, over in the Federation fleet, the Star Fox Team was getting ready to follow the transports into Earth's atmosphere, hoping that their stealth transport, which was equipped with a cloaking device, would allow them to enter the atmosphere undetected. Fox had his doubts since the Federation fleet had sensors that allowed them to detect cloaked ships with their gravity well sensors, which were sensitive enough to pick up on the gravitational signature of even a cloaked starfighter, assuming the starfighter was not employing other countermeasures as well. They only hoped that the passive sensor jammers onboard their transport would allow it to remain undetected until it was too late, for they knew that they would likely be detected once they entered the atmosphere.

Fox sat in his Arwing fighter, currently dubbed the _Arwing II_, which had been modified from its original form and was supposed to be more advanced, though it had inferior fuel capacity, with only comparable speed and maneuverability, was also equipped with only a single laser with the ability to lock onto one target, and two Smart Bombs. In essence, while it was supposed to be superior to his previous Arwing, it was inferior to it on almost every level. The only advantage of his current Arwing was the fact that it cost less than his other, superior, ship. Since the team was falling on hard times in terms of funds, they had to cut some corners and believed that using their new craft would allow them to still be an effective fighting force, while not forcing them to spend too much on their ships' upkeep. He checked on the conditions of his wingmen, Falco Lombardi, who was piloting a modified Arwing he dubbed the _Sky Claw_, a craft that resembled Fox's Arwing, but had forward swept wings with three blue spikes on the end of them that resembled feathers. In addition, his craft was also armed with only single laser, but could lock onto multiple targets and a Charged Laser could split off to seek out those targets; and one Smart Bomb, though the craft was exceptionally maneuverable and had a high sublight speed. Its sole weakness was the fact that its shields were weaker than those of Fox's Arwing. Krystal, his girlfriend, was pilot of the _Cloud Runner_, a fighter that was only loosely based on the Arwing in appearance, appearing to be in shape of a bird, a single rudder in the rear. It was equipped with two laser cannons with only a single lock, and a single Smart Bomb. While it had shields that were on a par with Fox's, it was slower than Fox's Arwing II. Finally, there was Slippy Toad, the mechanic in the group. Slippy flew a fighter he called the _Bullfrog_. It was, basically a heavy assault starfighter, resembling a fat Arwing in appearance. It was slower and less maneuverable than the normal Arwing, but was equipped with two Plasma Lasers and also had three Smart Bombs, along with heavy shields. Unfortunately, the ship did not have the ability to lock onto targets in the air, so it would be of limited utility in a dogfight against fast and maneuverable targets. However, it was death against ground targets and/or big, slow capital ships.

Once he found that everyone's fighter was in working order, he opened a channel to the rest of his wingmen and said, "Okay everyone. The Federation is counting on us. Our primary objective is going to be to find a planetary shield generator and disable it so a hole will appear in the Earth's shield. Then the Federation can send down ground troops to reinforce the forces already on the planet's surface. After that, our goal will be to cover the ground troops and go after important targets of opportunity. One such target is the bounty hunter, Samus Aran."

"Samus Aran?" came the voice of Krystal. "But she is renowned for dealing with the Space Pirates and has never taken jobs for any criminal and has refused to go on straight assassination missions, save for if the targets are the Space Pirate leaders. And even then, it's more along the lines of neutralizing their threat or the latest weapon that they have acquired or developed. If anything, she's a lot like us."

"I know," Fox replied in a melancholy voice. This was tough for him, too. "I wish it was different, but she has sided with the enemy; an enemy that must be dealt with now, while Cyrus still has time to accomplish his objective. She is the biggest hurdle to his mission at the moment. We must deal with her should we come across her."

"We're with you, Fox," came Falco's voice.

"Same, here," added Slippy.

Fox could only smile. He resolved to himself that he would not fail his team, his friend Peppy, or the Galactic Federation in its time of need.

An unfamiliar voice then chimed in over the comm, saying, "Okay everyone, we're about to depart. Hold on and get ready to deploy at a moment's notice. If things look bad, don't hesitate to blast your way out of the transport. Your survival is paramount, here."

"Got it," came the chorus of responses from the Star Fox Team.

Fox then patched a screen inside his Arwing to the cameras of the freighter so he could see what was going on outside. He watched as the ship departed the _Great Fox II_, and immediately engaged its cloaking device. The transport then followed a wing of Cornerian Fighters, which formed up with a few wings of Rapiers, Claymores, Epées, and the few Stilettos that remained in the Galactic Federation fleet and followed them to Earth, and a large number of Federation in Exile transports, Assault Shuttles, and Assault Transports that were delivering troops to the surface. As they approached the Federation in Exile fleet's lines, the battleships opened up on the fighters that were doing their best to get past and enter the atmosphere and pursue the transports. Scarlet energy pulses flashed past the ship, likely connecting with any starfighters behind the transport, since all of the starfighters in front of the cloaked transport that were targeted by the fleet and the Heavy Defense Platforms were instantly annihilated. Fox held his breath as he watched energy blasts sail by his transport. Even if they were not detected, there was still the possibility that a stray energy blast, or a blast meant for another ship, could tag them and expose them. And that was just what happened as they fell in among the ranks of the transports as they neared a hole in the planetary shields. As they neared the hole, a point-defense laser blast from a laser turret struck the side of the cloaked transport and scored damage on the hull, disrupting the cloak shield for a few seconds, and revealing the presence of the transport to the rest of the fleet.

"Launch now!" came the frantic call of the pilot into Fox's radio as the launch doors opened and Fox and his allies prepared their Arwings for launch.

They held their breath as the shields of the transport were lighting up from the fire of numerous point-defense lasers from numerous turrets. The shields quickly collapsed under the weight of the defensive fire, but the fighters of the Star Fox Team were ready for launch and they rocketed out of the opening of the transport and sped away from the doomed craft. As he was heading down towards Earth, Fox looked back for a moment and witnessed the transport break apart under the withering fire. The cries of the pilot and crew of the ship echoed over the radio as the laser blasts tore the ship apart. One final explosion silenced pilot and crew of the transport permanently. Fox seethed in rage at the loss of the fine Cornerians that had been lost. "Okay guys, let's not have their sacrifice be in vain," Fox declared with grim determination.

"Right," came the voices of the rest of his team.

With that, the group flew directly towards the transports, that were making their way through the shields, seeing that there were no starfighters protecting them, the starfighters being forced to remain in orbit to help fight off the Federation fleet and its reinforcements. Before starting on his search for the planetary shield generators, he decided that it would be best for him and his squadron to shoot down a few Assault Shuttles and transports.

As they approached to begin their attack run, though, the transports and Assault Shuttles' defensive guns swiveled around and targeted the Arwing fighters, sending scarlet beams of energy their way. Each of the fighters performed evasive maneuvers and barrel rolled in order to avoid the enemy fire, as well as deflect any bolts that managed to strike them. As they barrel rolled, a shield formed over their fighters that would deflect the laser bolts that were coming their way. Unfortunately, the targeting systems of the transports and shuttles were quite good, and they were continuously able to track the fighters, even when the fighters were several kilometers away. The volume of laser fire was too great for the fighters to be able to deflect all of the blasts. In the split second between one barrel roll shield forming and another barrel roll shield rising, the fighters toll a few hits, enough to convince them that it was safer to break off the attack and focus on their primary objective, for their fighters' laser cannons did not have the range to be effective against the transports, and it took their own targeting computers too long to lock on for a Charged Laser. Fox decided that the best thing to do to try to take out some of the transports would be to fire off one of his Smart Bombs. He pointed his fighter towards the wave of transports and shuttles and then fired off his bomb. The Smart Bomb was programmed to detonate at a predetermined distance and Fox knew that the shuttles were accelerating down towards the planet, and would likely try to shoot down the bomb. Sure enough, the bomb was shot down well before its maximum distance had been achieved, but Fox still hoped that the blast wave of the bomb would take down a few transports. He would have been disappointed to learn that the shuttles were too far out of range of the bomb's blast range and that he had wasted a bomb for nothing. Not knowing that, though, he and his team proceeded towards one of their primary target destinations, the planetary shield generator in the Kanto Region of Japan.

Meanwhile, over at Mount Coronet, the Hi'Gor and his Techno Knights began their attack on the mountain and its defenses in earnest. Blue defense lasers and plasma bolts were hurled at the attacking Techno Lords, but the armored soldiers shrugged off the weapons as if they had merely been quiet summer breezes. The return fire was far more devastating to the Space Pirates. The first targets of the N'Kren assault had been the defensive laser batteries, both automated and manned. The manned defensive laser batteries had been operated by a bunch of Zebesian Space Pirates and their loss was insignificant in the grand scheme of things. After the defensive lasers had been dealt with, the Techno Lords focused on the large Vigilance-class Heavy Turrets surrounding the mountain. These variations of the turrets fired green blasts of plasma blasts exploded on contact with the enemy and were powerful enough to knock off at least one Energy Tank from Samus's new armor, even with all of its built in upgrades, assuming she did not shield herself with her Screw Attack. Against the tough armor of the Techno Knights, and their Technoble leader, though, they may as well have been peashooters for the effect that they were having on the soldiers. Hi'Gor casually pointed his staff at the nearest turret and fired a single pulse of pulsating green energy. The energy pulse hit the turret and blew it apart, along with the Space Pirate inside. The rest of the Techno Knights quickly dealt with the other turrets that were spread around the mountain. When all was said and done, eighteen Vigilance-class Turrets had been destroyed, all of their operators being destroyed along with the turret. However, that was not all of the defenses that the Space Pirates had at the base.

As the N'Kren soldiers were annihilating the turrets stationed around the exterior of the mountain, the twelve Golden Zebesians rushed towards the Techno Knights and fired blue energy blasts from their blasters and sickly green plasma missiles from the launchers on their left arms. The energy blasts and missiles impacted the armor and the missiles' explosions looked quite impressive, but their actual power was far less so, and they inflicted no damage to the armored soldiers. A single Techno Knight then stepped forward and powered his energy projectors. After a single second of charging, the projectors unleashed a stream of pulsating emerald energy. The blast washed over the Golden Zebesians and they could not even contemplate screaming before they had been annihilated by the blast, along with a large portion of the mountain's floor where the Knights stood. The Knight merely grinned as the Zebesians were annihilated.

Once the Zebesians were destroyed and the mountain's outer defenses were destroyed, Hi'Gor looked over at one of his Techno Knights and said, "Na'Kor, scan the mountain. Reports indicate that the Space Pirates reached this world with a Heavy Freighter. Find it and destroy it."

"Yes, sir," Na'Kor replied, saluting his commanding officer. The Knight then activated his armor's scanners and performed a deep scan on the mountain. He was able to confirm that there were only one hundred and seventy Space Pirates remaining, not counting the leaders and High Command. He had also isolated the locations of at least one transport and a group of Space Pirate starfighters that were undergoing maintenance. Sweeping his gaze over the rest of the base, he soon saw his objective, the Heavy Freighter that was being converted into a sector of the base. It was unclear as to whether or not the freighter would be able to fly, or even escape the atmosphere, but its warp drive was still intact, though currently powered down. Na'Kor grinned.

"Sir, I have located the freighter," he informed Hi'Gor. "It is located on the other side of the mountain. If we take it out, the Space Pirates will be stranded here. The Space Pirate generals, Ridley and Kraid, are also located inside the freighter."

"Destroy it," Hi'Gor commanded with a grin.

The Techno Knight flew around the mountain to the location of the freighter, which was located beneath the mountain's surface. Once he had identified the freighter, he powered his energy projectors and fired on the freighter, expanding the openings of the projectors so that they would encompass the entire freighter. He did not care about the mountain's condition as long as the Space Pirates were destroyed. Besides, if Cyrus had his way, he would not need the use of Mount Coronet. A portion of the east side of the mountain was blown open as the hull of the Heavy Freighter was exposed. The stream of energy burned through the hull of the freighter and exposed its inner workings just before they were vaporized by the blast, along with three dozen Space Pirate Troopers. The entire upper half of the freighter vanished, along with several of its engines, and Na'Kor was about to sweep his blast downward to annihilate the rest of the freighter when a pulsating scarlet wave of energy erupted from the lower half of the freighter and engulfed Na'Kor, melting portions of his armor and annihilating the staff he held in his hands. His engines quickly gave out and the Techno Knight promptly fell to the mountainside, crashing into the rocks and rolling down the hill before eventually coming to a halt.

On the other side of the mountain, Hi'Gor and the others waited for Na'Kor to return from his duty when they noticed his biosigns become faint and, after a moment or so of stability, vanish. "Sir, I am no longer detecting Na'Kor's biosigns," one of the Techno Knights informed the Technoble. "And his biosigns became faint before his death."

"I can see that, thank you," Hi'Gor grumbled. "Check it out."

"We don't have to, sir," another Knight said waveringly, causing Hi'Gor and the others to look at him questioningly.

"What is…?" but the Technoble had his question answered before he finished as he stared forward and saw two figures floating towards them. They wore gold and silver armor respectively. The golden armored warrior looked to be armed with a series of blades as his primary weapons, indicating that he or she was a close-range specialist, though the energy projectors on the soldier's chest gave the soldier a ranged attack. Hi'Gor was also certain that the blades of the soldier also doubled as energy projectors as well, much like his own bladed staff. To the left of the golden soldier was a soldier dressed in silver armor. Unlike the golden armored warrior, this one seemed to have an assortment of guns and cannons, in addition to the standard chest energy projectors. However, the warrior was also armed with a single sword that looked reminiscent of an old Earth broadsword. Hi'Gor gasped in horror as he immediately recognized the two warriors as Rodney and Virginia Aran. He looked over at the others in his force and one of them nodded, "Confirmed. The two are Techno Lords and their bioscans identify them as Rodney and Virginia Aran."

The Technoble was ready to faint. He had heard the rumors that the Arans had defected to the Space Pirates, or had been captured and brainwashed by them, but he had scarcely believed it. They had always had fond memories of their child, a mortal enemy of the Space Pirates. There was no way that they would risk hurting Samus. This had to be a trick of some sort. Perhaps the Techno Soldiers standing before him were not Rodney and Virginia Aran. He activated his scanners and scanned the two soldiers. After a few seconds, his scans came back, merely confirming what he already suspected. The two Techno Lords standing in front of him were, indeed, Rodney and Virginia Aran. His shock turned to rage as he saw the human parents of one of the Space Pirates' greatest enemies join their side, seemingly of their own free will. He gripped his staff tightly, barely able to contain his anger and newfound hatred for the humans that hovered before him. Glancing over to the rest of his party, he yelled, "Destroy them!"

Immediately, the Techno Knights powered their energy projectors and unleashed tremendous streams of pulsating green energy. Hi'Gor also joined in on the action as he opened fire with everything he had, in addition to his crystal skiff's weaponry. The two Techno Lords merely raised their left hands and an energy shield formed that protected them from all forward frontal assaults. The waves of energy struck the shields and broke upon them, flowing around the two Lords as they floated. When the barrage of fire ended, the two Lords continued to hover in the same spot, having suffered no damage from the attack. "Oh crap!" Hi'Gor swore, his rage getting the better of him as he fired another barrage of energy blasts from his staff and skiff. The two Lords then unleashed their own volley of weapons fire on the Techno Knights. Scarlet energy streams erupted from the energy projectors of both soldiers, while more pulses of energy erupted from the cannons and guns of Virginia, as the two blades held in Rodney's hands fired energy blasts at the Techno Knights and Hi'Gor. Half of Hi'Gor's forces were defeated in the initial volley, six Techno Knights falling to the mountainside, smoke trailing their breached armor bodies.

The remnants of his force decided that they would have better luck engaging the two Techno Lords in close combat. Drawing their weapons, the soldiers charged the Techno Lords, hoping that their superior numbers would make the difference. Three Techno Knights engaged Rodney Aran, known as Blade to the N'Kren soldiers, with two soldiers, who had drawn twin broadswords that could generate their own energy field slashed at him. Blade, however, drew a cylindrical device and pushed a single stud on the side of the device. A scarlet blade that was about twenty-eight inches in length emerged from the cylinder and was stabbed into the abdomen of one of the attacking Techno Knights. Pulling the blade outwards until it would only cut the armor, he brought the blade upwards, the blade continued to slice through the Knight's armor until it emerged from his head, leaving a massive slice through the soldier's armor, electricity sparking from the furrow. The Knight fell to the ground, where he crashed and remained still, but still alive. During this time, another Techno Knight charged towards Blade firing energy blasts from his dagger while preparing a sword strike. An opaque electric blue shield formed around Blade's body as he turned and swung his blade, cleaving the sword in half, slicing through its electrical field. He then spun to the rear of the Knight and sliced off his engines with the blade, sending the Knight spiraling down to the ground, where he crashed and his armor deformed and disappeared, reverting the soldier to normal. This left one Techno Knight for Blade to deal with. This Knight simply charged towards him, thrusting the blade end of his staff towards the Lord. Blade caught the staff and jerked it free from the Knight's grasp. He deactivated his Beam Sword and then punched the Knight strongly enough to dent the armor. He then proceeded to shove the blade end of the staff into his lower torso, where he left the blade in about a foot deep. He then withdrew the blade and let the Techno Knight fall to the ground, where he smashed into a series of rocks, pulverizing them, and rolled to a halt, reverting to normal and remaining still, with a serious gut wound. Blade's sensors indicated that the soldier, however, was still alive. He then looked over at his wife, Virginia, who the N'Kren had dubbed Blaster when they made her a Techno Lord.

Virginia had done quite well against her three opponents. Hi'Gor and a Techno Knight were the first to charge towards her, having drawn their staves. The Techno Knight thrust his staff towards Blaster's abdomen but a bluish shield formed over her body, deflecting the strike. She countered by drawing her sword and stabbing the Techno Knight with it, while catching Hi'Gor's own staff and jerking it out of his hands. She withdrew the blade and let the grievously wounded Techno Knight fall back to the mountain below. She then used Hi'Gor's staff to knock him off of his skiff, which she promptly blew apart with a single blast of pulsating scarlet energy emitted from a wrist blaster. She then swung the staff into Hi'Gor, cutting a deep gash into his armor across the Technoble's chest, damaging two of his energy projectors. With a single punch, she then knocked him towards the ground.

The Techno Soldier who had held back while Hi'Gor and his comrade had engaged Blaster, and gotten slaughtered by her, felt that it was his duty to let the Federation know of the threat that was located on the Earth. Opening a channel to the Capitol Building, not knowing that it was under Federation in Exile and Earth control once more, the Techno Knight hysterically cried, "This is Ra'Xef to the Capitol Building. General Korro, Colonel Traidan, please respond. This is Techno Knight Squad One of the First N'Kren Techno Legion. We were sent by Cyrus to Mount Coronet to destroy a Space Pirate presence that had infiltrated the Earth. However, the Space Pirates have stronger defenses than we initially believed and are putting up a serious fight! Among those defenses are two Techno Lords. Repeat, the Space Pirates have infiltrated the Earth and are at Mount Coronet! They have two Techno…" but the transmission was cut when a powerful stream of lightning shorted out the radio and disabled the suit's systems, save for the emergency crash systems. The now powerless Techno Knight then fell to the Earth to join his friends on the ground.

Blaster and Blade then floated towards one another and looked down at the disabled Techno Knights. Before they could make any moves to finish them or capture them, however, a blur of motion came towards them and stopped right next to them. Hi'Gor was still alive. However, his suit was noticeably damaged, having a large furrow in its torso, with two of his energy projectors having been destroyed. However, his remaining projectors were still glowing and he was ready to fire them. He seethed, "Let's see you survive this, traitors!" He then unleashed a full powered energy wave upon the Techno Lords. Their shields flared as the wave of energy washed over them at point blank range. After a few seconds, the energy inside Hi'Gor's suit had been expended and the attack ceased. Much to Hi'Gor's shock, and anger, Blaster and Blade still floated before him, completely unfazed by his attack. As soon as the attack dissipated, Blaster told Hi'Gor in a low, cold voice, "The only traitor here, is you."

The N'Kren soldier's eyes flashed as he charged them, drawing his sword and activating its energy field. He then tried to bring it down on the Techno Lord's head. Blaster raised her staff and caught Hi'Gor's sword strike, though the staff broke under the power of his Power Sword. It was of little consequence to the Techno Lord, though, for now, she had two swords. Hi'Gor swung again at the Techno Lord, who parried the blow with the left half of the broken staff, and stabbed the soldier with the right half in the torso. As the blade broke its way into the armor and bit into the flesh, blue blood leaked from the wound. Blaster then withdrew the blade and drew her former master towards her. "You betrayed Rodney and Virginia Aran," she told him accusingly in her now normal cold, hard voice. "You gave them to Cyrus, a traitor to humanity and an ally, or rather, a _former_ ally of the Space Pirates, and he gave them to the Space Pirates, who converted them into what you see before you…their very own elite Techno Lords."

Blade then approached and drew two daggers. "And you shall pay for what you did to them; for that part of them is still alive inside of us. Whereas they prevented us from fighting the Hunter, their own flesh and blood, on Shanera, they are offering us no resistance now. Today, Hi'Gor, you will die." And with that, both Blaster and Blade shoved their blades into the N'Kren soldier. However, the stabs were not in fatal areas of the body. He was stabbed in each arm and leg, along with two blades being shoved into his torso in non-vital areas. Blue blood leaked from the wounds and Hi'Gor roared in pain and rage as he was brutalized by his two former subordinates. Once they were finished with him, they withdrew their blades from his body and Blaster released him. He fell to the ground, tumbling through the air, pieces of broken metal falling off his body. Eventually, he struck the ground, pulverizing a rock that jutted out from the mountain's surface in the process, and rolling along the ground until he came to a halt. When he stopped rolling, the armor deactivated, breaking off into its various components and falling off of his body.

The Techno Lords slowly descended to the ground until they reached the fallen Techno Knights. As they descended, they noticed a shadow come over the scene. Looking into the sky, they genuflected before the Pterodactyl-like figure that was flying towards them. The Space Dragon, clad in brown and gray armor that covered most of his body, though the "helmet" was not fully enclosed. "You two have done marvelous work here," Ridley congratulated. "Taking down a dozen Techno Knights, and their Technoble commander is commendable, indeed." However, despite his praise, he seemed a little disappointed. "Still, I don't think that you're fully functional yet."

"What do you mean, Lord Ridley?" Blade asked.

"You two haven't killed a single one of them," the massive dragon answered. "Every single one of those soldiers you engaged is still alive." He then paused as he put his claw to his mouth as if in thought. "_Was_, in the case of the soldier that destroyed the freighter," Ridley corrected. "Damn, he was good," the Space Dragon mused, smacking his lips.

"We cannot afford to waste energy at the moment," Blaster responded. "Until the recharge stations have been fully installed, we are still limited to the energy reserves inside our suits. And besides, we felt that it would be better to keep these soldiers alive. Without their armor, they are significantly weaker, yet they have knowledge about N'Kren technology…knowledge that Rodney and Virginia Aran do not possess."

"Hmm," Ridley mused. "You _do_ have a point," he supposed. But a feral grin soon twisted his lips. "But still, we don't need _all_ of them to be alive for us to glean the secrets of N'Kren technology, now do we?"

Blaster and Blade merely stood there, their armored forms hiding their faces, which showed no indications of whether or not they agreed with Ridley nor not, nor did it show whether or not they cared about what happened to the soldiers. When he did not receive an answer, Ridley proclaimed, "I'll take your silence as meaning that you consent to my wishes!"

After the proclamation, Ridley then went to the nearest fallen N'Kren soldier, who was now devoid of his Techno Knight battle armor and opened his mouth. He then bit the soldier in half, swallowing the top half, letting the soldier's waist and legs fall to the ground. He roared and then soared into the air and sprayed fire onto four more fallen N'Kren soldiers. The wounded soldiers were immediately set ablaze and crawled around on the ground, crying out in agony as they burned to death. The Space Dragon then dove towards another fallen N'Kren, crushing said alien in one strike. Another N'Kren, who was not nearly as badly wounded as many of the others, rose and tried to launch an attack on the Space Dragon, only to be grabbed by Ridley's talons and smashed into the ground. Ridley then shoved his beak into the soldier, breaking numerous bones before opening his mouth and setting the dying soldier ablaze. Another soldier who could still fight took this opportunity to fire an energy blast from his pistol at the dragon. However, his grip was loose, and his stance wobbly, so his shot went wide. However, it got the dragon's attention, and with blinding speed, the Space Dragon rushed over to the soldier, grabbed him in his hands, and tore him in half.

All the while, Blaster and Blade just stood by and watched as Ridley tore apart the remaining N'Kren soldiers. The Rodney and Virginia parts of them nearly wept at the sight, but something kept back the involuntary tears. They also remembered Hi'Gor's "betrayal" when he sent them to work for Cyrus, and when Cyrus sent them to the Space Pirates to be their servants. They could not help but feel sympathy for the innocent N'Kren soldiers, assuming soldiers here _were_ innocent. If Cyrus had sent them, then there was the chance that they knew, or at the very least suspected, that Cyrus's plans would likely end up destroying the Earth. But there was also the chance that the N'Kren soldiers truly did not have knowledge of the Chairman's plans.

Eventually, Ridley had had his fun and almost all of the N'Kren had been killed. Only one trooper remained that they could see. The still living soldier was grabbed by Ridley, who was now being attended to by several Space Pirate Troopers. Ridley directed them, "Take the subject to one of the telepath computers and have his mind drained."

"But Lord Ridley, won't that kill him?" asked one of the Pirates.

"Yeah, so?"

"So, don't we need him alive so that we can understand how this stuff works and he can show us how the how to get this stuff to work?"

"You think he'd help us willingly?" Ridley retorted with a snort.

"Good point," the Trooper shrugged as he and the others grabbed the still living N'Kren and dragged him to what would be his eventual death.

As soon as the Pirates had departed, Ridley was about to leave when an energy blast struck his armor and inflicted damage to his shields. "What the hell…?" Ridley roared as he looked behind him and saw that one of the N'Kren, likely the Technoble, was still alive.

The Technoble stared at Ridley and seethed, "You…bastard." He leveled an unsteady finger at the Space Dragon. "What you did to them is unforgivable! I won't let you get away with it!"

He then grabbed a discarded staff and charged the Space Dragon. "If I kill only one more Space Pirate in my life, it shall be you!"

"Not likely," Ridley roared as he thrust his tail forward. The razor-sharp tail caught Hi'Gor in the lower right part of his torso and penetrated his armored uniform and flesh. It continued on its way through and emerged out the other side. Hi'Gor coughed blood as he was forced backwards by the momentum of Ridley's tail. Ridley gave a grin as he pulled back his tail. "Die slowly," Ridley scoffed as he rose into the air and left the coughing N'Kren to die. Blaster and Blade also rose and joined him as he flew away from the scene. Hi'Gor could only look up at his former friends, now turned into mind-controlled slaves by the Space Pirates, as they flew off with the one who had clinically killed them so many years ago on K-2L. Tears formed in Hi'Gor's eyes as he slumped to the ground, coughing up more blood, and whispered, "I'm sorry. Please forgive me." He then fell to the ground and remained there, awaiting his eventual death.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17:

Back at the Capitol Building, Samus stood in the command center, looking at the tactical screen that showed the Earth and its moon, along with the position of the warring fleets in orbit. The red dots and clouds on the screen represented the Galactic Federation in Exile ships, while the green dots represented the loyalist Galactic Federation starships and fighters. More green dots were appearing from beyond Luna's orbit and quickly making their way towards the approaching Federation fleet. With the reinforcement waves that were coming in, she knew that it would only be a matter of time before the Federation fleet overwhelmed Admiral Dane's forces and started to land reinforcements of their own on the Earth. The only saving grace was the fact that the ships up in orbit would not risk opening fire on the surface of the planet for fear of killing Cyrus along with the Federation in Exile and the Earth military forces. Soon, a Marine tech sergeant who had an earwig in his right ear looked over at General Hastings and President Richardson and reported, "Sir, we've got good news on the comms. Dane's sending down the first wave of transports, and Assault Shuttles. They'll be reinforcing our troops in the Johto and Sinnoh theaters. In addition, we have reports that indicate that Cyrus is somewhere in Japan, close to Goldenrod City."

"Good," Hastings called. "Direct any spare troops we can send to reinforce those areas and call in air support for tactical strikes on any beachheads and command centers for the Federation that might be located in the Johto and Sinnoh regions. Tell them to destroy everything. If Cyrus is there, and we can take him out now, then we may still be able to end this war without any more bloodshed."

The young sergeant's expression showed that he shared General Hastings' sentiments. As he went to make the call, an Army sergeant looked up from his control console and pushed a series of buttons, calling out, "Everyone, you'll want to hear this, especially you, Samus," he said, looking over at the bounty hunter.

This got Samus's attention and she went over to his console, followed by General Hastings. When she arrived, both she and the general asked, "What is it?"

"We just picked up this distress signal from Mount Coronet," the sergeant responded. "It's coming from a N'Kren soldier, and it was sent here, directly. Given that we've just taken over this building, chances are that he does not know that the building was captured. Listen."

He then put the transmission on speakers and the two listened as a raspy voice blared over the static of the line, "…General Korro, Colonel Traidan, please respond! This is Techno Knight Squad One of the First N'Kren Techno Legion…sent by Cyrus to Mount Coronet…"

"I'll try to clean it up, sir and ma'am."

He adjusted a few dials and then played it back. The voice said, much more clearly this time, "This is Ra'Xef to the Capitol Building. General Korro, Colonel Traidan, please respond. This is Techno Knight Squad One of the First N'Kren Techno Legion. We were sent by Cyrus to Mount Coronet to destroy a Space Pirate presence that had infiltrated the Earth. However, the Space Pirates have stronger defenses than we initially believed and are putting up a serious fight. Among those defenses are two Techno Lords. Repeat, the Space Pirates have infiltrated the Earth and are at Mount Coronet! They have two Techno…" but the transmission ended abruptly.

"That was not us," the sergeant told them. "The transmission was cut from the other end."

General Hastings stroked his chin and mused out loud. "The Space Pirates? Here?"

"Two Techno Lords," Samus whispered to herself audibly. The only thought that came to her head was the prospect of her parents being with them. The mention of the Techno Lords was all she really needed to hear to want to investigate this signal.

General Hastings looked back at President Richardson and told him, "Sir, we have received a transmission from a group of N'Kren soldiers at Mount Coronet. They have encountered a band of Space Pirates inside the mountain."

"Space Pirates?" Richardson blurted. "On Earth?"

William Hastings nodded solemnly. "All indications point to that being the case."

"But how did they manage to get through Earth's defenses?" Richardson asked. "If they've been here long enough to land and establish a base, then they must have gotten here before Samus began to attack the Orbital Rings."

"Then someone on Earth must have let them through," Hastings figured. "Given that Cyrus was firmly in control of both the Radio Tower and the Capitol Building, the only location where sectors of the planetary shields could be dropped, and orders given to let ships through, then either Cyrus, or one of his commanders, likely on his orders, allowed the ship through."

"We have to stop them," Samus proclaimed firmly. "We have to finish what the N'Kren started."

"How?" Hastings asked. "Mount Coronet is all the way in Japan and taking down Cyrus is out top priority at this time. We'd have to divert forces away from the various fronts to deal with this threat, and we've already heard what two _Techno Lords_ can do to a force of Techno Knights.

"I'll do it," she declared. "Besides, there's a personal stake in this for me. Those two Techno Lords are my parents. They were brainwashed by the Space Pirates when Cyrus gave them to the Pirates as payment for a favor the Pirates did for him a while ago. At least, that's the story _I_ was told when I confronted them on Shanera."

"But there's still the fact that you'd have to fly all the way to Japan to reach them. We don't have the ships to spare at this time, and even if you could call down your own gunship/starfighter, it would have to fly through a war zone to get here. Chances are that without a human controlling it, either in cockpit, or via remote, it would be shot down."

"I know," Samus said quietly.

"We could use one of the Galactic Federation ships, here," President Richardson suggested. "Both General Korro and Colonel Traidan were mentioned in the transmission. So far, only General Korro has been accounted for, but Traidan was known to be an armor genius. He may have been operating one of the mechs or tanks that was defending the building. Chances are that their ships may still be here. And I would bet good money that they have some special modifications, especially for defense."

"Sounds like a plan," General Hasting said hopefully. "All we have to do is find the vessel and we're good to go."

"I may be able to help with that," one of the Marine commanders interrupted. "I've had my men been scanning the building, searching for any holdouts and we found a secret hangar area down below the building. Inside, we saw a series of fighters and other ships, including some pretty fast ships like a Wolfen, a ship used exclusively by the Star Wolf Team, likely acquired by former Chairman Elric when he was interested in gathering samples of technology from other political powers. He also managed to have a Cornerian Fighter with an FTL drive, as well as several Venomian starfighters, too. We also found a tunnel that led out of the building that looks like an escape tunnel. The tunnel has an exit point about a mile away from the building."

Both President Richardson and General Hastings glanced over at Samus, who gave a quick nod. Before she departed, they told her, "Go get 'em, Samus."

With a grin, and fierce determination the likes of which even she had never experienced before, Samus replied, "I will, sirs." She then left the command center and made her way down towards the hangar.

Meanwhile, the first wave of transports brought down reinforcements to assist in the defense of vital locations on Earth and attempt to keep them out of the hands of Cyrus and his minions. Now that time was not on Cyrus's side, he had thrown caution to the wind and was throwing everything he had at the vital locations that he felt he needed to secure in order to accomplish his objectives. One of those locations was the Ruins of Alph, for he had heard a rumor once that if a trainer had taken an Arceus to the ruins, he would be teleported to the fabled Sinjoh Ruins, his true destination. So far, the Galactic Federation had managed to take control of Goldenrod City, but fighting on the routes that led to the Ruins of Alph and Union Cave were still hotly contested.

A squadron of Aries-class transports carrying Marines from the First Infantry Division landed behind a series of bushes and trees just off of Route 35, directly north of Goldenrod City. As soon as the transport touched down, the complement of troops disembarked from the ship. The rest of the transports that were sent to reinforce the area also landed and disgorged their troops as well. Once the troops had disembarked from their transports, they formed up in the forest and waited for the transports to take off. Other ships and assault shuttles deployed tanks and ground and hover-based armored personnel carriers. After their cargo had been delivered, the ships rose into the air, but before returning to space, they gave the reinforcements, and other defenders, a chance to catch their as they flew towards the front lines of the invading Galactic Federation force coming out of Goldenrod City. A volley of scarlet energy blasts blew massive holes in the ranks of the invading forces, blowing apart tanks and APCs that were taking troops to the front lines. Fire, metal, and debris were thrown into the air and bodies were tossed from the centers of the explosions. Other troops dove to the ground as the tanks exploded in order to avoid being skewered by shrapnel. Unfortunately, many of them did not take cover fast enough and were either severely injured or killed. Once the transports had taken out the front armor ranks and decimated the invading forces that were about to launch their attacks, they turned and rose further into the sky, rocketing back up into orbit so as to lend their support to the fleet in its upcoming battle.

Meanwhile, on the ground, the Federation in Exile and Earth military took advantage of the covering fire and emerged from their own cover made their push towards Goldenrod City, the infantry troops running along the route in order to keep back the enemy soldiers. Several squads stayed back at chokepoints to keep guard and harry the enemy should they get past the advancing force, or manage to push the rest of the troopers back. As for the main force, they continued their push towards Goldenrod City, their primary objective being to clear the city of Cyrus's forces.

Over on the beach just outside of Goldenrod City, Cyrus stood in the command outpost that was coordinating the invasion of Goldenrod City and the push towards the Ruins of Alph. He scowled as he read the reports of reinforcements being deployed by transports launched from the ships above, which had recently achieved orbital superiority. Despite the fact that fleet reinforcements had arrived to assist Admiral Morg, reports were already coming in about Morg's death and that his replacement was Admiral Breaz, of the first wave of reinforcements. While his fleet now outnumbered Dane's forces two-to-one, he knew that with the Defense Grid now under Earth's control, that it would require at least three-to-one odds to be able to defeat the fleet, and that was before trying to get past the planetary shields, which effectively closed off the planet from almost any attack short of a planet killer attack, and the shields were said to be rated to be able to block a single blast from a beam capable of literally blowing apart the planet.

Cyrus then focused on the reports of the reinforcements coming to the two paths that were between Goldenrod and the Ruins of Alph. All attempts to simply land troops in the ruins, themselves, or close to them, had ended in disaster. The ruins were protected by a group of Pokémon Trainers led by the Sinnoh League Champion, Cynthia. With several Gyarados present as well, it would be hazardous to send in more Techno Knights to try to take it. A surface attack would be his best chance to try to overwhelm the attacks. It was now that he wanted to know the exact location of the Sinjoh Ruins more than ever, since with reinforcements, and Dane likely being able to hold out for quite a while, along with the Earth's planetary shield blocking access to the planet, chances were that with these reinforcements, if he did not find the location of the Sinjoh Ruins soon, he would either have to go into hiding until a better opportunity to search for them presented itself, or launch an all out invasion of the Ruins of Alph and _hope_ that the Arceus trophies would allow him to use the secret warp inside the Ruins of Alph to access the Sinjoh Ruins.

Mercury soon broke Cyrus out of his reverie when he approached the Chairman and said, "Sir, Alakazam is receiving a message from Venus. We believe we may have located the Sinjoh Ruins. There is an area north of the Johto that cannot be detected by sensors. Venus and her escort flew over it and detected a strange energy signature in an area about twenty-four kilometers north of the Lake of Rage. They managed to find what looked to be a temple in the area they scanned, but they could not get closer due to the fact that a force of Earth fighters and Pokémon Trainers approached. Given the defenses present, Venus believes that we should check it out as soon as possible."

"Did they manage to get any scans of the area, no matter how garbled or distorted?"

"Yes," Mercury answered.

"Get all of the Team Galactic Executives here as quickly as possible. I want to go over the data before we commit to the action, but have Alakazam tell Venus to store the data on the computer of her shuttle, as well as transmit the data to her escorts as well."

"Understood," the executive responded.

Cyrus then stared at the map and considered the ramifications of the latest report from Venus. If it was true, and this was the location of the Sinjoh Ruins, then he finally had what he needed, and the attack on the Ruins of Alph would be unnecessary. With that happy thought, he waited for the arrival of Venus and the other Team Galactic Executives.

Back in Washington D.C., Samus Aran sat in the cockpit of her newly acquired starfighter, identified as a Wolfen II-class starfighter without her armor, for she needed both hands free in order to fly the fighter. Physically, the fighter slightly resembled a sort of butterfly and was rainbow colored in its paint scheme, along with having pointed wings, like fangs or claws. For combat, it was equipped with two heavy laser cannons that looked to be knockoffs of Federation laser cannons. They were not as powerful as the energy cannons of her own gunship, but they were rapid fire and could be charged to fire a Homing Laser. However, this Wolfen II was not equipped with any missiles or bombs, which limited its utility in Samus's eyes. Its targeting computer also only allowed it to lock onto a single enemy craft at any given time. The shields were relatively strong, but were not as strong as those found on her current gunship. The lack of sensors, save for the targeting computer and basic sensors that merely displayed any fighter-sized ship save for special ships like Arwings or Wolfens as small, white dots, and larger structures and capital ships in a grayed out shape resembling said structure or ship also troubled her since she would not be able to find out whether or not a ship was friend or foe. Compounding the issue was the fact that sensors on this ship only seemed to extend five or six kilometers or so, which meant that combat was limited to visual range. This ship was noticeably inferior to her gunship/starfighter in every way. The only saving grace was that its top atmospheric speed was Mach five which, while still greatly inferior to her own ship's top atmospheric speed, was still sufficient for her purposes and, given the shortcomings on the other ships in the secret hangar, made it the ship best suited for her task on such short notice. She only hoped that its shortcomings would not cost her should she be forced to engage in a dogfight. She let out a sigh, wishing that she could use her gunship, but thankful that she was in a specially crafted starfighter, rather than a mass-produced fighter. While ships like the Katana, Wraith, Warthog, Dagger, and Stiletto were all fine starfighters, noticeably superior to anything any of the other powers were producing at the time; they did not have the same level of shields as specially designed ships like Arwings, Wolfens, and her own current gunship, which, since they were not mass produced, could afford to be given the greatest of technology, since their users would be able to afford one or two such ships at the higher cost, rather than the thousands, if not millions, that would need to be produced for a military like the Galactic Federation, Galactic Federation in Exile, or even Earth or other member Federation worlds. She was glad that the ship had its extra shield power, for if she were ever discovered by the enemy, she would need all the shield power she could get, for the enemy would be on her in an instant.

The light on the radio flashed on her and she pushed a single button and the voice of President Richardson came in, saying, "Samus, you are cleared to proceed. Good luck."

"Thank you, mister President," the bounty hunter responded.

She then activated the G-Diffuser on her fighter and it rose into the air. Turning her fighter to the tunnel, she gunned the throttle and shot forward as if her ship were shot from a cannon. After a few seconds, she was directed to rise and she saw a light in front of her. She arrived at the light and exited the tunnel, rocketing into the air. Following her map to Mount Coronet, she turned her fighter to the west and pressed her fighter to full throttle, and rocketed towards Mount Coronet at Mach five.

Meanwhile, over in Japan, just north of the Kanto Region, the Star Fox Team was participating in an already hotly contested battle near one of the planetary shield projectors. If they had managed to take out this projector, then there would be a small hole in the shields over the Earth, allowing the Galactic Federation to bring down reinforcements of its own. The fact that the arrival of more ships in orbit had forced Admiral Dane to keep many of his fleet's starfighters up in orbit to ward off the Federation's own fighters, as well as forcing the transports to return to orbit to support the capital ships meant that the Federation in Exile had no air forces to deal with any of the transports or fighters that managed to get through the gauntlet of starships and, turrets, and defense platforms and into the Earth's atmosphere. The Earth's ground forces were effectively fighting without any air support at all, save for what the forces of Earth that had not been wiped out were already able to provide. With the addition of more troops and fighters to support them, the Federation would quickly be able to recover many of the lost targets on Earth, as well as provide cover for Cyrus as he carried out his plans.

The shield projector was already in sight of the team when they had entered the fray. Some Earth atmospheric fighters came up to meet the Star Fox Team and fired missiles at their fighters from beyond visual range. The lock-on warnings of the fighters alerted the pilots to the imminent danger and they turned, charging homing laser blasts and releasing them before they could lock onto any targets. They fired a gauntlet of Charged Laser blasts in the hopes that the detonations of the blasts would either shoot down the missiles, or confuse their targeting systems. Off in the distance, the Charged Laser blasts detonated, and with them, several red flaming explosions were visible. Fox smiled as he witnessed the missiles explode, with several more falling to the ground. However, much to his surprise, some of the missiles managed to make it through the blasts and continued towards the fighters. Each of the members of the Star Fox Team opened fire on the missiles, spraying green laser and plasma blasts, praying that they managed to score a hit. One of the laser blasts managed to score a hit on a missile and shoot it down. However, there were still more missiles coming in. Fox and the others only managed to tag one more missile before the rest of them impacted with their fighters. As the missiles struck the fighters, their shields flared an electric blue, managing to absorb the full brunt of the impacts. Slippy's _Bullfrog_ was hit by two missiles and, thus, took more shield damage than Fox and the others, but his fighter was also better suited to deal with such hits as well and only suffered slightly more shield damage than the others. Still, Fox knew that dogfighting was not the strong suit of the _Bullfrog_, so he opened a channel to Slippy and told him, "Slippy, head on over to the shield projector and take it out. We'll keep the fighters off your back."

Slippy then accelerated towards the shield generator, and several of the atmospheric fighters, which looked reminiscent of old Earth twentieth century fighters, rushed after him. Fox and the others took this time to lock onto the fighters with their targeting computers, charging their lasers in the process. The targeting computer locked onto a starfighter and Fox let loose with his Charged Shot. The green ball of energy erupted from the nose cannon of his aircraft and followed the fighter as it broke away from Slippy. The other members of the team quickly locked onto the other fighters in the squadron and unleashed their own charged shots towards them, with several shots being unleashed from Falco's _Sky Claw_, albeit at a weaker power per shot. The shots homed in on the pursuing fighters, which were forced to break off their pursuit of Slippy and on their own survival.

The fighters continuously maneuvered, avoiding the Charged Shots, hoping that the shots would overshoot them and detonate once they failed to hit anything. However, several upgrades had been performed to the Charged Lasers of Star Fox's starfighters. These shots could adjust their speed and hold tighter maneuvers. In essence, they were just like missiles. Eventually, they were able to catch up to their quarry and they struck the fighters, detonating upon impact. The atmospheric fighters were annihilated by the blasts as they detonated.

This gave Slippy the necessary time to fly to the shield projector while the rest of Star Fox and the Federation fighters occupied the defending Earth atmospheric fighters and target it. He only had three Smart Bombs, and he did not want to waste them, so he used his ship's sensors to find out what types of defenses the projector had. Much as he expected, it was surrounded by a shield that was capable of holding off at least one nuclear scale weapon. He soon targeted the projector and launched a Smart Bomb from his fighter. The red bomb was propelled from his craft and had no engines of its own, due to wanting to maximize its destructive potential, and streaked towards its target. The bomb proceeded unhindered towards its target and struck the shield, detonating immediately upon impact. The outer edges of the blast Smart Bomb's blast expanded to the size of a small town, and the multicolored inner energy field shaped like an atom continued to eat away at the shield until it dissipated four to five seconds after detonation. A blue field of energy formed around the projector as the bomb detonated, absorbing the full brunt of the blast that struck it. Still, the blast wave of the bomb expanded beyond the shield a bit and killed numerous troops on the ground that were standing too close to the shield, and the blast range of the Smart Bomb. Still, despite the bomb's detonation, the shield still held. Checking his sensors, though, he found that the shield had been taken down to fifty percent of its original strength. Another bomb should be sufficient to deal with the shield, and a strafing run should damage the projector sufficiently to disable it.

He turned his fighter/bomber around and headed back to the projector. This time, though, several troopers on the surface that were armed with shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles took aim at Slippy's _Bullfrog_. Before they could fire, though, a series of emerald green laser blasts fell among their ranks and annihilated them. Looking over, he saw Falco in his _Sky Claw_ cant his wing towards him and a transmission came over the radio, saying, "You owe me, Slip," in a cocky voice. Falco then turned away to deal with some more enemy fighters.

Slippy then refocused his attention on dealing with the shield projector. Arming another Smart Bomb, he zeroed in on the projector and let fly with another bomb. The bomb rocketed away from the fighter and Slippy quickly turned away as it struck the projector and detonated. This bomb was sufficient to not only take down the shield, but also inflict some damage to the projector. However, the shield projector still managed to function. That changed as soon as Slippy strafed the dish-like projector, blasting multiple holes into the dish, as well blowing off the antennae-like device coming out of it. The debris from the antennae fell to the ground, where it crashed and nearly crushed several defending troopers.

The Federation fighter pilots gave whoops of celebration as they then flew towards the defending ground troops and opened fire on them, just for fun. Krystal watched from her fighter and a tear formed in her eye. She looked away in disgust as the Federation fighters blew apart the ground forces, though the troops did not die without a fight, using any and all of their remaining surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) and shoulder-launched SAMs to take down as many fighters as possible. Fox Falco assisted the fighters in dealing with the ground troopers that were still fighting, but Krystal refused to be a part of it. She opened a channel to Fox and Falco and asked, "What are you doing? Our mission here is accomplished!"

"We're protecting the fighters," came Fox's response.

"Yeah," Falco echoed. "Those ground forces still shot at the Federation fighters."

"Only after the Federation fighters went in to slaughter them!" Krystal countered angrily.

Before Fox and Falco could give a reply, though, a black Wolfen-like mark appeared on radar maps. Fox looked at the mark and found that it was the same marking designated to a Wolfen-class starfighter that was exclusively piloted by members of Star Wolf. Looking at the marking, Fox said, "It can't be. Star Wolf? Here?"

"Who can say?" Falco replied. "It seems like everyone else has congregated at Earth for one reason or another. Though, that drubbing we gave them in the first Battle of Earth should have been enough to force them to keep their fighters in the repair bay for weeks, if not months. Still, it's just one ship. I don't think that only one pilot would be fighting if all three members weren't in sickbay."

Despite Falco's statement, the battle against Star Wolf over Earth had been anything but a drubbing. While that battle had gone in favor of Star Fox, they had to note that they had a lot of help from numerous Federation starfighters as well, and Falco had still been shot down by Wolf O'Donnell and Leon Powalski when he had gone after Panther Caroso, and Slippy's Arwing had lost both wings in that battle, forcing him to make an emergency landing, and Krystal had had a wing taken off of her own Arwing in the fighting as well.

The group watched as the Wolfen II flew by the scene, not stopping to engage them at all. "That's odd," Fox mused. "Didn't even stop to say hello."

"We _do_ outnumber him four-to-one," Falco noted. "Maybe Wolf, Leon, or Panther have gotten a little smarter since their last battle with us."

"Possibly, but there's something else going on here," Krystal told the others. "That fighter's going at over Mach Five and appears to be decelerating. Not only that, but it appears to be heading north, directly towards a target of interest…Mount Coronet, if I'm reading the map correctly," she added, after checking her map and sensors.

Fox then opened a channel to the military commanders in Johto and said, "This is Fox McCloud, to Cyrus and the military commanders in Johto. We've disabled the shield projector just north of the Kanto region, but we've detected the a Wolfen headed towards Mount Coronet."

A response soon came in from an unfamiliar voice, "Good work, Star Fox. Follow the Wolfen and shoot it down if it makes any suspicious moves towards Mount Coronet. While you're at it, check on the Techno Knight strike force that we sent there to take care of a Space Pirate base as well. If something has happened to them, finish what they started and wipe it out. Should it be necessary, its destruction will be added to your fee."

"Understood," Fox answered. He then switched to the full squadron channel and said, "Okay everyone, you heard the orders. We're headin' to Mount Coronet. We've gotta gun it to maximum speed if we're gonna catch the Wolfen in time."

"Got it," the rest of the squadron answered as the fighters gunned it towards Mount Coronet in hot pursuit of Samus's Wolfen.

Not too far ahead of the Star Fox Team, Samus noticed a quartet of fighters break off from the fighting behind her and begin to come her way. The fighters were still a ways away from her, and were not gaining ground very quickly. However, she noticed that one of the fighters was slowly catching up to her. She knew that as she slowed down when she was about to reach her destination, that the craft would arrive. On the Wolfen II's map display, instead of showing up as a blue Arwing-shaped marking. She grimaced. The Star Fox Team was after her. She then gunned the fighter to full throttle, hoping to arrive at Mount Coronet before the Star Fox Team would be able to catch up and enter the mountain before they managed to arrive and shoot her down, but she made contingencies in her head just in case they managed to catch up to her. She was glad that the Wolfen II had an anti-lock on system and shield that would disperse any Homing Lasers and confuse any Smart Bomb targeting sensors, but she did not feel comfortable with the prospect of Smart Bombs coming into play. If they managed to score a lucky hit on her, her ship could suffer severe damage, if not get shot down.

Looking into the distance, she found that she was fast approaching Mount Coronet. As she slowed down, she noticed that one of the Arwings was approaching fast, and showing no signs of slowing down. Then, just as it got within a kilometer or so of her, the ship slowed down. After a few seconds, one of her screens turned red, indicating that the ship was trying to lock onto her ship. So far, it was not successful, but she did not want to take any chances. She went into a climb and looked behind her. She saw a green, pulsing ball of energy rushing after her in a straight line. Since she had already begun her climb, she was out of its flight path. The ball detonated a few seconds after it had been launched, and well away from her fighter. She was still out of range of the Arwing.

She went to full throttle once more and rocketed towards Mount Coronet, with the other fighter pursuing. She also noticed that the other fighters had almost managed to catch up before she accelerated once more towards the mountain. Looking back, she saw the enemy fighter, which looked to be little more than a kilometer away from her fire green pulses of light towards her fighter. She almost breathed a sigh of relief as the pulses dispersed a few dozen meters away from her fighter.

She continued on her path to the large mountain in the distance and saw the damage that had been done to one side of the mountain. It appeared as if the N'Kren Techno Knights had managed to get a few hits in on the Space Pirates before getting taken down. As she approached the mountain, she also noticed the wreckage of what looked to be defense turrets and cannons. Looking down at her map, she found that there were some white blips close to the wreckage, indicating that there were still a few turrets that were operational. Her suspicions were soon confirmed as a volley of green energy blasts streaked towards her fighter. Looking down, she saw several anti-personnel turrets firing on her Wolfen II. These blasts were designed for anti-personnel use, and as such, should not have damaged her fighter. To be on the safe side, though, she went into a barrel roll. As she did so, her ship produced an energy shield that deflected the energy bolts away from her ship. She then strafed the area and took out several of the remaining defense lasers. As she continued to fly around the mountain, she found four Vigilance-class plasma turrets still functioning as well. These soon adjusted their aim and targeted her fighter. They then spewed out balls of green plasma towards her fighter. Executing another barrel roll, her shield deflected the balls if plasma in all directions, some of them back into the mountain, where they hit the mountain and blew out chunks of rock and dirt, revealing tunnels and caves. She then performed a strafing run on the four turrets and destroyed all four of them in one pass.

After destroying the four turrets, a series of green laser blasts shot past her fighter. Checking her sensors, she found a blue Arwing mark close behind her fighter. Looking behind her, she saw a fighter that resembled an Arwing, but had forward swept wings, each with three spikes resembling feathers on the end of them, coming towards her. She immediately performed a loop over the fighter, allowing it to pass right under her, while she charged her own Homing Laser so she could fire on the Arwing. The fighter soon performed a loop, following her maneuver, before she was able to get a lock on. This did not bother Samus, though, since she knew that a large portion of the Arwing's boost meter would be used up in that maneuver, and that it would take time to charge, even if he could perform a looser loop again. Sure enough, her enemy performed another loop, this one much looser than the other, but still too tight for the normal maneuverability of her craft to perform without using up energy from her boost meter, and she followed him, knowing that he would have to wait for the enemy's boost meter to charge back up before he could perform tight complex maneuvers once more. Once he leveled out, she locked onto his fighter and let loose with her charged Homing Laser.

A scarlet ball of energy erupted from the front nose cannon of her starfighter and zeroed in on the enemy fighter, Falco's _Sky Claw_. Falco's eyes went wide at the sight of the homing energy ball. "What the…? Wolfen IIs don't have the ability to charge their lasers and fired Homing Charged Lasers."

However, much as he could not believe it, it appeared as if this Wolfen II _could_ charge and fire Homing Lasers. He did everything in his power to evade the ball of energy, but since his boost was not yet charged back up, there was little the Cornerian humanoid bird could do except perform a barrel roll, hoping that the roll would either break the lock, or if worse came to worst, deflect the ball. His craft then entered a barrel roll in the attempt to break the lock and/or deflect the ball. Unfortunately, his attempt was in vain, for the Homing Laser continued to follow his craft and the barrel roll shield was unable to protect against a Homing Laser. The shield was immediately breached by the blast and it scored a direct hit on his fighter just as his boost meter was fully recharged and he began a loop. "I'm hit!" he cried over his radio, which Samus's Wolfen was also able to pick up on. That single transmission was all Samus needed to be able to see that her Homing Charged Laser seemed to take little more than half of his shield off of his fighter. Looking at the damage done to his fighter, she figured that he had likely sustained damage from an earlier battle, for there was no way that a Homing Charged Laser would take off half of the ship's shields. She then tracked Falco as he performed his loop, waiting for him to come down so that she would have a clear shot at him. As Falco was looping, he warned the other Star Fox Team members, "This Wolfen Two can charge its lasers and fire Homing Shots, too! Be careful."

"Thanks for the heads up," came the voice of Fox McCloud over Falco's comm.

As Falco came out of his loop, still barrel rolling in order to make sure that any subsequent enemy fire would be deflected, Samus slowed down, so as to not overshoot her target, and fired her Wolfen's twin laser cannons on his _Sky Claw_. While the barrel roll shield managed to deflect the first few blasts, the next few in the volley got through while he performed another barrel roll to create a new shield. She scored four hits on him and took his shield down to nearly one quarter of its original strength.

"I could really use some help, here, Fox!" Falco cried as he sustained another barrage of hits, only the first few shots being deflected by Samus's lasers, noticing his shields decrease noticeably with each hit.

Inside his _Sky Claw's_ cockpit, Falco grimaced as Samus was inflicting considerable damage to his fighter's shields. "Man, who is this guy? No one in Star Wolf is this good."

He performed another loop, which Samus quickly followed, performing a barrel roll so as to avoid sustaining damage from her lasers. Knowing that his enemy could perform intricate maneuvers more often than he could in his ship, he decided to take advantage of the one area that an Arwing, and by extension, his _Sky Claw_. He then went into a turn and held it, trying to get behind Samus's starfighter. He knew while a Wolfen II was faster, had stronger laser cannons, and this one could even charge them to fire a Homing Charged Laser, almost certainly more powerful than the one that an Arwing could perform and could perform tight intricate maneuvers more often than his own craft, he knew that the Wolfen II was not more maneuverable than a standard Arwing, to say nothing of his _Sky Claw_. As he turned, Samus did her best to follow his maneuver but his fighter was able to perform a harder turn, so try as she might, she was unable to line up a shot.

It was at this time that the rest of the team finally arrived at the mountain. Several green laser blasts flashed past her cockpit, with one managing to score a hit, and slightly damage her ship's shields, and she looked behind her to see three starfighters closing in on her. The blasts strafed the ground, scorching the stones beneath her fighter as she dove towards the ground, hoping that one of the pilots would be foolish enough to try to follow her. None of them were, though, and she realized that she had to engage them head on if she wanted to beat them.

Performing an Immelmann turn, she reversed her direction and pointed her Wolfen straight at the three incoming Star Fox fighters. She charged her Homing Laser and unleashed a single shot towards the leader, Fox McCloud. The scarlet energy ball streaked towards his fighter and he performed a loop to try to break its lock. He was too late to perform the loop, though, and the ball managed to score a hit on his fighter, taking it shields down to half strength. While Fox was occupied with the Homing Laser, Samus unleashed a volley of laser blasts at the other two fighters, focusing on the weaker fighter that resembled a bird, rather than an Arwing. She scored several hits on Krystal's _Cloud Runner_ before the female Cerinian fox performed a barrel roll to limit the damage to her fighter. Several blasts were deflected and Samus turned to focus on Slippy's _Bullfrog_. He performed a barrel roll to deflect some of her laser fire, but after the first roll's shield vanished, he took some direct hits from Samus's ship. He then tried to turn towards Samus so he could face her down and take advantage of his ship's superior Plasma Lasers, but she performed a barrel roll as he opened fire on her and the opening volley of plasma pulses was deflected away from the fighter. A few pulses managed to score hits on her, but her ship's shields were holding strong against the assault and she only lost about a eighth of her ship's shields. She performed another roll as she swerved in order to avoid Slippy's _Bullfrog_ as the two fighters exchanged fire. Several more shots hit her fighter, but four twin-linked energy blasts managed to score direct hits on the body of Slippy's fighter-bomber.

As she went to Immelmann back to Slippy, two streams of laser fire came from below, scoring hits on her fighter. Looking down, she saw a normal Arwing and the forward swept wing Arwing approaching. Realizing that having two fighters on her tail would likely bring a swift and untimely end to this fight, she turned around to take the fight to them, directly, charging a Homing Laser. Once she was facing the two oncoming fighters, she locked onto Falco's fighter and waited until he began his loop in order to break the lock. As he looped, Fox fired on her with his fighter's single laser cannon. Barrel rolling, she deflected most of the hits, but the few pulses that managed to hit her Wolfen only inflicted minor shield damage to her ship. As Falco emerged from his loop, she let fly with her Homing Charged Laser. The scarlet pulse of energy rocketed towards Falco and he tried to turn away to cause it to overshoot his fighter, but the pulse scored its hit before he was able to do so. A red sphere of energy engulfed the fighter and destroyed the rest of the _Sky Claw's_ shields, inflicting direct damage to the fighter's hull. The engines were smoking as several parts of the metal body were warped and melted. A single shot from her laser cannons would be enough to take down the fighter. She lined up her shot with Falco's _Sky Claw_ and just as he Immelmann turned to face her, she let loose with her final shot. The laser blasts scored a direct hit on his starboard wing and nose. Both the wing and the nose snapped off and the fighter began to smoke as it listed downward and to the left. The canopy immediately flew off the top of the fighter and Falco jumped out of his doomed fighter. Spreading his arms, which doubled as wings, he glided to the ground, aided by his special flight suit. His fighter, however, merely plowed into the mountainside and crumpled and deformed upon impact, skidding along the ground and scrapping off metal, wires, and other key components of the fighter. Eventually, the flaming hulk came to a rest a few dozen meters away from its initial impact point. Samus looked at the ground and thought, _One down, three to go_.

Her next target was the fighter that resembled a fat Arwing. Knowing that that fighter was not nearly as fast or maneuverable as the others, she wanted to take out the easy target before he could cause her any trouble while she handed the other two fighters. Charging her Homing Laser, she focused on the bulky fighter-bomber and locked onto it. Slippy must have detected her lock, for he immediately performed a loop. His loop was relatively loose, but it was still tighter than most fighters could perform under normal power. Samus merely slowed her Wolfen II, barrel rolling to make sure that any fire from the other two Star Fox Team members was deflected and the shield damage to her fighter was kept to a minimum. Her Wolfen still maintained its lock and she fired her Homing Laser at Slippy's _Bullfrog_.

Since Slippy's boost meter was still recharging, at a significantly slower rate than Fox's Arwing II, he was unable to perform any evasive maneuvers that would allow him to avoid the incoming blast. The scarlet energy ball struck his craft and exploded, inflicting noticeable damage to his ship's shields. However, due to the strength of the shields, and the durability of his ship, he still had a little more than a third of his shield strength remaining. Samus clipped off more of his fighter's shields with a volley of laser fire that caught the pilot by surprise. The bounty hunter was quick to notice that Slippy seemed to be the least skilled of the Star Fox pilots.

She continued to fire on the _Bullfrog_, which was unsuccessfully attempting to evade her fire, when a volley of laser blasts struck the rear of her fighter, prompting her to barrel roll and perform a loop. Underneath her craft sailed the other two members of Star Fox. She decided to test the strange-looking Arwing that resembled a bird and maneuvered in close behind. As she did so, she let loose with a volley of laser fire. A couple blasts scored hits on Krystal's _Cloud Runner_, but the female fox quickly put her fighter into a barrel roll, producing a shield and then performed an Immelmann turn to get out of the line of fire.

Fox McCloud soon turned around and began a dive towards Samus's Wolfen. He sprayed laser fire towards her, but she entered into a barrel roll and performed a series of evasive maneuvers that allowed her to avoid damage. She soon noticed Slippy coming from the right and she decided that now would be a good time to take him out of the fight before he joined Fox on her tail. Performing a series of barrel rolls to deflect Fox's laser fire, she banked to the right and entered into a tight turn to try to close in on Slippy. Fox's tighter turning ability of the Arwing allowed him to keep up with her, but his superior turning ability was slight, and with the surprise of the turn, she had a few seconds to close in on Slippy before Fox managed to get a bead on her. She charged her Homing Laser once more and locked into Slippy, who was still foolishly trying to keep out of her line of fire by entering into a turning contest. It was a contest that he would lose, for after Samus locked onto his fighter, she let loose with another Homing Charged Laser. The ball of energy erupted from the nose of her craft and rocketed towards the unfortunate fighter-bomber. It scored a direct hit on the ship's engines and exploded, inflicting more shield damage to the ship. Some of the energy also bled through the shields and inflicted damage to the engine walls of Slippy's fighter, which was now smoking, with electricity arcing across its engines. This was Samus's cue to finish off his fighter, and finish it off she did. With Fox blasting away at her tail, she lined up her fighter with Slippy's while she barrel rolled in order to limit the damage done to her fighter. She then fired a volley of scarlet laser blasts at the stricken fighter-bomber just as Slippy was putting the craft into a loop. She scored a series of hits on the engines and there was an explosion in its engines as the shields were breached. The fighter continued upwards as Slippy let loose a cry on the radio.

Fox, seeing his wingman continuing to ascend into the sky, smoke trailing his fighter just as he was at the apex of his climb and beginning to fall back down to the Earth, with no sign of him having ejected from his fighter, yelled to Slippy, "Bail out, Slippy! Bail out!"

Eventually, Slippy obeyed and the canopy to the dead _Bullfrog_ opened. Slippy jumped out of his fighter and began to fall. As soon as he began to fall, he pulled the chord on his backpack and deployed his parachute. He gently floated to the ground away from Mount Coronet as his fighter fell to the ground, crashing into the side of the mountain and exploded. Samus had taken down half of the Star Fox Team in this battle. With Falco and Slippy down, she focused on dealing with Fox and Krystal. Checking her shields, she found that she still had half of her ship's shields remaining.

Fox searched for his teammate and found Krystal quickly forming up on him. A channel opened between the two fighters and he heard Krystal ask, "Fox, who is this person?"

"I don't know," Fox answered. "But he's not a member of Star Wolf. None of the members of Star Wolf fly like this. And besides, he's better anyone I've seen on Star Wolf. Only Wolf may be on his level."

"Do you think we can beat him?"

"Yeah," Fox said in a confident voice. Despite the seeming confidence in his voice, he was worried. Despite the fact that both Falco and Slippy's fighters had taken damage in their fights in the atmosphere, the way that this Wolfen pilot had dealt with them was scary. He would not have been surprised if it had been Ixis, Fasome, or even Wolf O'Donnell piloting this Wolfen II, but reports indicated that Ixis and Fasome had been killed in a Space Pirate raid on a convoy a couple days ago, and Star Wolf was still recovering from the last battle they had with Star Fox. Still, that did not deter him from taking on this challenge, quite possibly the greatest challenge that he had ever faced. "Are you with me Krystal?"

"I always am," came the Cerinian fox's response as she followed Fox.

"Fall back a bit and stay far enough back to cover me. I'm going after this fighter, myself."

Krystal obeyed and let off the throttle a bit as both she and Fox searched the map for the location of their quarry. Their search soon ended as a black Wolfen mark appeared in the right corner of their map, approaching fast. Fox performed a barrel roll in anticipation of having to deflect enemy laser fire, but Samus waited until the shield dropped before opening fire on his craft. Once his shield dropped, she opened fire on him, scoring several hits on his fighter, taking it down to less than one quarter its original shield strength. A few more hits would be enough to take down the fighter. Fox rocketed away in order to make himself a tempting target. She did not take the bait, for she knew about Fox's teammate, who was trailing her fighter, firing on it. She continued to barrel roll as Krystal fell in behind her and unleashed a vicious volley of laser fire from her ship's twin laser cannons. The barrel roll deflected many of the blasts of energy, but several more blasts managed to score critical hits in between barrel rolls, taking her shields below half strength.

Knowing that she had to do something quickly to make this a one-on-one fight, she flew a straight path towards Fox, knowing that his wingman would follow her and take a shot at her. Checking her sensor map, she found Krystal's _Cloud Runner_ rapidly closing in on her fighter. As soon as Krystal got too close, she performed a loop, which the pursuing _Cloud Runner_ quickly followed. Samus grinned, though, for she knew that her ship's boost meter would allow her to perform another loop before Krystal would be able to perform a second loop of her own. Charging a Homing Laser shot, Samus performed a second loop just as Krystal opened fire on her fighter. Samus performed a barrel roll and managed to deflect the laser blasts as she performed her loop. Krystal sailed underneath her Wolfen II and she soon leveled off behind the _Cloud Runner_, locking onto the ship, and letting loose with her Homing Charged Laser. As the energy ball was homing in on the fighter, Samus unleashed a volley of laser fire from the Wolfen II's twin laser cannons. With the shield damage being inflicted by the laser blasts, the Homing Charged Laser was the final nail in the coffin of Krystal's _Cloud Runner_.

The scarlet energy missile struck the rear of her fighter and exploded, blowing out the engines of the ship, and destroying the rear quarter of it in the process. The ship entered into an involuntary barrel roll and fell uncontrollably to the ground. Krystal wasted no time blowing off the cockpit canopy and jumping out of her doomed starfighter. As her parachute opened to slow her fall, she watched as her fighter crashed into the side of the mountain, exploding and blowing a hole in the side of the mountain. That left only one fighter for Samus to deal with, Fox McCloud's Arwing II.

As Samus was dealing with Krystal's _Cloud Runner_, Fox, noticing that Samus was no longer focusing in on him, performed an Immelmann turn and rocketed back towards Samus just as she shot down Krystal. When he saw the _Cloud Runner_ falling towards the mountain, he cried, "Krystal, no!"

He was greatly relieved to see Krystal jump out of her doomed starfighter and her parachute deploy. He watched as she gently descended to the ground, landing softly near the base of the mountain. Once he was certain that she was safe, he proceeded to focus his gaze on the Wolfen II that was making its way towards him. "You won't take _me_ down," he vowed.

As for Samus, she also focused her attention towards Fox McCloud since he was the greatest threat to her at the moment. As soon as they got within range, both fighters fired on one another while flying straight towards one another, both sides playing chicken. As they fired on each other, both fighters barrel rolled in order to deflect the other's laser blasts. The laser blasts of the Wolfen's laser cannons were far more powerful than the laser blasts of Fox's Arwing, but something soon happened that Samus did not expect, for an anti-aircraft plasma missile from the surface struck the rear of her Wolfen and exploded, inflicting significant damage to her fighter's shields, taking off more shield energy than a Charged Laser fired from an Arwing would have. She could not afford to look below her until she faced down Fox. She flew towards him and forced him to break off his attack, several of her laser blasts sailing past him, but having inflicted more damage on his fighter, the bleed-through damage causing the fighter to smoke. However, Fox's return fire also inflicted more damage on her own Wolfen, taking its shields down to a sliver of what they used to be. She realized that she would have to break off the fight and get to the closest entrance to Mount Coronet as soon as possible.

She looked back at the mountain and noticed a squad of eight Pirates standing around one of the entrance tunnels to the mountain, two of the Pirates holding shoulder-launched plasma missile launchers. They were quickly reloading their weapons for a second shot. Quickly turning around, she lined up her fighter with the Pirates and unleashed a volley of laser fire on them, slaughtering the Pirates in a single pass.

After dealing with the Pirates, she searched for a place to land her fighter since she knew that in an extended battle with Fox McCloud, she would lose. She soon saw an open area that could fit her fighter. As she began her approach, though, she saw Fox's Arwing close in on her. Seeing that he would do everything in his power to shoot her down, she decided to do the thing he least expected: she turned towards him and took her fighter on a collision course with his own. Holding onto the control stick with one hand, Samus reactivated her armor, a golden sheen covering her body and her Power Suit then forming over her body and form. As she gripped the control stick, she mashed the fire button for the laser cannons into the stick, unleashing a hail of energy fire on Fox's _Arwing II_. After a few seconds, she fast approached his Arwing, performing a barrel roll in order to deflect his incoming fire. She managed to score some more hits on the fighter, but it was too little, for Fox managed to score two fatal hits on her own fighter.

His first laser blast sheared off the left wing of the Wolfen II, with the second one taking off some of its nose. Smoke trailed the fighter and blinded the cockpit canopy, but Samus was barely able to make out Fox's Arwing trying to bank away from her fighter. She would not have any of that, though, and she pulled the stick to the right as hard as she could. The fighter swerved slightly and entered a spin, which carried her directly into Fox's _Arwing II_. The two ships crashed and her ship sheared off the right wing and part of the nose of Fox's starfighter. Samus grinned as the Wolfen collided with the enemy fighter and took off its wing. She hoped that the loss of a wing, combined with the previous damage suffered by his fighter was enough to take Fox out of the fight, and keep the Star Fox Team out of her hair for a while.

Knowing that it would be foolish to stay with her doomed fighter, she pushed the canopy release button and as soon as the canopy was blown off, she proceeded to jump out of the doomed fighter. She fell to a relatively large mountain ledge without any concern, for her suit had the ability to survive atmospheric reentry. Falling a few hundred feet would be nothing. She landed on her feet and created a small crater in the ledge that she had landed on. Looking into the sky, she saw Fox struggle to keep his one-winged _Arwing II_ aloft as he was taken away from the mountain. Smoke trailed the doomed craft as it was listing downward and Samus silently hoped that Fox would punch out of his fighter and not attempt to ride it in; not only because she did not want to risk fighting a starfighter on the ground, but also because she did not want to see him die trying to ride the fighter to the ground. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw him jump from the stricken fighter and let it crash and die a quick death as it crashed into the mountain, rather than a slow death as it scraped itself apart trying to land using its landing pads as wheels.

With the Star Fox Team's threat neutralized for the time being, Samus began the search for the nearest entrance to the mountain. She quickly scaled the mountain, using her Screw Attack to fly along the mountainside until she could find an entrance. So far, she was having difficulty finding an entrance, and began to think that she would have to ascend all the way to Spear Pillar before she would be able to find an entrance and infiltrate the mountain. She continued her ascent until she eventually reached one of the peaks. The peak was frozen over with ice, and only sparse patches of grass grew this high, and in the cold temperatures at this altitude. She landed on the icy ground spied a cave entrance along the mountainside right in front of her. As she approached, her sensors indicated the presence of another person in the vicinity. She activated her Scan Visor and quickly scanned the area. Seeing a pile of rocks to her right, she went over to investigate. As soon as she started to walk, a large stone was pushed aside and a N'Kren soldier was revealed, clutching his side. She could see blue blood leaking from under his hand and arm. Rushing over to the N'Kren, she directed, "Lie down and stay still. Your wound is serious."

The N'Kren struggled to raise his head towards her and, seeing that it was Samus who was caring for him, croaked, "Not as serious as the wound in my heart, Hunter."

Samus was puzzled by what he meant and asked, "What are you talking about?"

The N'Kren cracked what passed for a smile in his current condition. "I mean that I am Hi'Gor, commander of the first N'Kren Army. I was…the one who…sent your parents, Rodney and Virginia Aran, to Cyrus to help bolster the Galactic Federation forces. After doing so, I did not stop to check on…them. Cyrus gave them to the Space Pirates as a reward, or payment, for something."

"I know," Samus told him. "I encountered them on Shanera."

The N'Kren gripped Samus's arm and pulled her down to him. "Samus, the Space Pirates must be stopped. They cannot be allowed to leave this world." He then handed her a small, cube-shaped device. "This is an emergency teleportation unit," he croaked. "The Pirates managed to capture a N'Kren soldier after our battle. He was taken inside their base to have his mind scanned and his knowledge downloaded to the Space Pirates' computers. When you find him, push the cube against his skin, turn the knob forty-five degrees clockwise, according to your clocks, and push it in. It will automatically teleport him to the bridge of the N'Kren flagship." Looking sternly into Samus's eyes, he reiterated, "Samus, you must destroy the Space Pirates. Wipe them out, once and for all. Do…what…I…could….not."

"Stay with me!" she shouted. "Don't die on me! I'll call for help!"

She opened a channel to Admiral Dane when the N'Kren reached up to her, stopping her. "Don't," he told her, shaking his head. "It's too late for me, Chozo Warrior. You must carry on with my mission to destroy the Space Pirates. It's the only…good thing I've done in this useless war." With that, the N'Kren fell back to the ground. Samus watched as his chest rose and fell rhythmically for a few seconds. She placed her fingers at his carotid artery, or what would have passed as such for a N'Kren, and felt the throb of blood slow. His pulse slowed until it came to a complete stop. When it came to a stop, Hi'Gor gave one last sigh. Samus scanned the N'Kren and all of her readings came back negative. He was dead.

Samus gripped the emergency teleporter that she had received from the N'Kren and attached it to her left arm for the time being, being careful to not activate the device. She then turned to the entrance and began to walk towards it. As she began to approach the entrance, she saw the side of the mountain facing her get blown outward. Boulders the size of Arwings barreled towards her and she had to either dodge the incoming boulders, or blast them with her Plasma Beam. The torrent of boulders and stone soon ceased and she scanned the large cloud of dust that had been created. As she scanned it, she heard, and felt, the sound of footsteps coming towards her. A loud roar also erupted from the cloud as well. Soon, a large figure that looked to be more than a hundred and twenty feet tall emerged from the cloud of dust. Samus's eyes went wide as she saw that the beast that had emerged was none other than Kraid, one of the Space Pirate generals. The difference here was that he was almost twice as large as he was before. He had his normal three yellow eyes and three spikes emerging from his stomach as well, but there was also a large metal plate on his head as well. She readied her Arm Cannon, switching to her Power Beam so as to prepare to charge a Super Missile as he looked down on her. "Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh," the beast laughed as he looked down at Samus. "Today, Hunter, you die," he said menacingly. Samus, had other ideas, though, as she charged her Power Beam in preparation of force-feeding the massive beast a Super Missile.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18:

Kraid stomped towards Samus, the ground shuddering with each thunderous step he took towards the bounty hunter. Before starting the fight, she activated her Scan Visor. After scanning the beast, the scan came back, _Morphology – Meta Kraid. This is a clone of the Space Pirate enforcer Kraid, enhanced with Space Pirate genetic engineering and bionics. Among the new weapons the subject possesses are explosive claws-like spikes launched from the stomach, boomerang fingernails, fire breath, and explosive magma boulders launched from his mouth. Subject's skin is highly resistant to damage and can withstand multiple attacks from vehicle-mounted weapons, and even weapons like Smart Bombs and Power Bombs. The same weaknesses apply to this version of Kraid. Fire a Charged Shot or missile at the eyes to force open Kraid's mouth and fire Super Missiles into the mouth to inflict damage_.

After she read the scan, she focused back on the beast, charging her Power Beam so she could launch a Super Missile at the towering beast. Before engaging him, though, she checked to make sure that the Star Fox Team was well away from the mountain as she engaged the massive reptilian beast. Kraid began the fight by firing the three protruding claw-like spikes from his stomach towards the bounty hunter below. Samus deftly dodged the incoming claws and avoided taking any damage. The claws soon exploded with the same force as three Super Missiles, gouging massive craters into the rocky ledge, and inflicting damage to Samus's suit with the splash damage of the blasts. As he was firing his stomach spikes, he also spewed out boulders from his mouth. Fortunately, Samus managed to dodge them, and their blast radii with ease, and avoid taking further damage, for even the indirect splash damage of the stomach claw-like spikes took off nearly an entire Energy Tank from her. She then fired a Charged Shot at his eyes. Being slow to respond, Kraid took the hit head on and roared in agony as one of his eyes were stung by the blast. Samus took advantage of the opportunity to charge her Power Beam once more and prepare a Super Missile while Kraid was still roaring. She targeted the beast's open mouth and fired a Super Missile. The missile erupted from her arm cannon and streaked straight towards the beast. It landed in his mouth and exploded.

Kraid roared in agony at the explosion of the missile and smoke issued forth from his mouth. Glancing at the beast's life bar on her HUD, she found that the Super Missile had only taken off roughly one tenth of his total health. That meant that she would require at least nine more Super Missiles to take him down. Given that, with the firing of her previous Super Missile, she only had one hundred and twenty-five missiles left, and would be left with eighty missiles, at most, at the end of this fight, she hoped that he would leave energy and missile power ups once he was beaten. She then considered another option for dealing with the behemoth standing before her. She checked her remaining number of Power Missiles and saw that she still had nine such missiles remaining.

Kraid launched a vicious counterattack in the form of a stream of fire towards Samus. The attack caught Samus by surprise and she suffered a direct hit, losing an entire Energy Tank in the process, before somersaulting into a Screw Attack to protect her from the rest of the blast. The stream of fire melted a gully into the ledge of the mountain, which traveled down the mountainside and even to the path below that led to the mountain, forcing those who were traveling the path to jump to the side, or be reduced to ashes by the flame. Eventually, Kraid ceased his fire attack and inspected the damage. Samus was still standing, but the blast of energy had taxed her Screw Attack shield to the limit. She knew that she would not be able to take another blast like that without sustaining damage.

Kraid, taking full advantage of his strengths, covered his eyes with his left hand, while he launched the boomerang-like fingernails of his right hand towards Samus. The spinning projectiles came right towards her and she fired a blast from her Power Beam at the nails, only to find that her Power Beam was not sufficient to deflect them. She then dove to the ground, allowing the nails to sail overhead, and then scurried out of the way of their return strike. The boomerang-like fingernails returned to Kraid, who launched them again, along with a series of fireballs. Samus evaded the fireballs and switched to her Plasma Beam in the hope that the beam would be able to deal with the fingernail claws. Taking aim at the incoming claws, she opened fire on them, her Plasma Beam knocked them out of the air, melting some and burning others to ash.

Seeing that a battle with Kraid would take a long time, and likely be costly in necessary supplies, she decided to forgo the usual long fight, switched to her Wave Beam and charged it. Knowing that only her Wavebuster would be able to inflict damage to the beast's eye while his hand was covering his face, shielding him from her other attacks, she locked onto him and opened fire. Lightning arced from her cannon and streaked towards his face. The lightning struck the beast's arm and arced across the arm, down to the body, and eventually arced across the entire body. Despite the fact that she was blowing through missiles like crazy, she continued the attack, for she knew that it would only take one Power Missile to destroy him should she launch the missile into his mouth. Once the lightning arced into his eyes, Kraid recoiled and stomped away from Samus and roared in agony. He then stood perfectly erect and spread his arms out as electricity still arced across his body.

Before Samus could open fire on his mouth, though, two Space Pirate Armored Tactical Carriers came out from the opening in the mountain behind Kraid and opened fire on Samus with their tribeam cannons, unleashing a volley of blue energy blasts upon her. The bounty hunter jumped into the air and performed a Screw Attack to avoid taking damage from the attack. The energy blasts bounced off of her Screw Attack shield and flew in a variety of directions, with one of them being deflected into Kraid's eye, paralyzing him again just as he had regained movement to his body.

Seeing this as her best chance to take down Kraid, Samus zeroed in on the behemoth's mouth and prepared a Power Missile. The red-tipped warhead emerged from her arm cannon as it opened up to fire the missile. Once Samus had locked onto the beast, and ensured that his mouth was still open, she let loose with the missile. The projectile streaked from her arm cannon and flew up towards the enormous maw of the beast. Kraid looked down and saw the missile streaking towards him and tried to close his mouth in order to minimize the damage that he would sustain, but he was unable to do so. His mouth was locked open for a split second too long as the missile flew into his mouth just before he was able to close it. This was the ATCs' cue to get as far away from their soon-to-be _former_ general and enforcer as they could before the Power Missile exploded. The Power Missile promptly _did_ explode, and blow apart Kraid. The explosion expanded out from his stomach and Samus fled the ledge, jumping down off the mountain to avoid the blast. As she did so, she saw the orange wave of destructive energy expand outward from Kraid, but only a dozen meters or so beyond the ledge. She figured that the body of Kraid had absorbed most of the explosion, thus limiting the damage inflicted to the surrounding area.

Samus soon performed a Screw Attack to take her back to the ledge and make her way into the mountain base of the Space Pirates. However, a volley of two energy blasts struck her Screw Attack shields and were deflected away. Looking up, she saw that the two Space Pirate ATCs were hovering above her, ready to fight. She Screw Attacked her way back up to the ledge and landed on the now burnt ledge, smoke and steam still rising from the remains of Kraid's destroyed body. The two ATCs followed her and opened fire on her, deploying four Space Pirate Troopers, each.

Samus turned around and quickly dealt with the Space Pirate Troopers with a few uncharged Plasma Beam shots to the Pirates, each. She took down two Pirates in her opening volley, but the rest of the Pirates, plus their air support made life tough for the bounty hunter as they opened fire on her. A few of the blue beams from the Troopers managed to score a hit on her, but she managed to avoid the fire from the ATCs. Seeing the ATCs as the greater threat, at the moment, she decided that she had to take them out as quickly as possible. Remembering the Battle of Norion and how the bounty hunter Rundas had taken down four ATCs in rapid succession with a volley of ice blasts, she switched to her Ice Beam and charged it in preparation for firing blasts from her Ice Spreader, all the while dancing out of the way of the energy fire of the Space Pirate Troopers and the ATCs. Quickly checking her missile loadout and finding that she had eighty missiles remaining, she locked onto the lead ATC and unleashed an Ice Spreader blast at the ATC. The expanding wave of ice emerged from her arm cannon and quickly streaked towards the ATC like a missile. The ATC attempted to ascend and fly over the blast, but the expansion of the ice wave managed to tag the craft and freeze its intakes, as well as its engines. With the craft's engines down, the craft was no longer able to stay aloft. It fell out of the sky, and into the crowd of Space Pirates below, exploding upon impact. The explosion scattered the eight Space Pirate Troopers, killing several of them, and wounding the others. Before giving quick mercy to the wounded Pirates, she focused on the surviving ATC.

The other ATC ascended into the air as the bounty hunter charged her Ice Beam once more. Seeing that she had a chance to end this quickly, she fired her Ice Spreader once the beam was charged. The expanding wave of ice erupted from her arm cannon and streaked towards the carrier. This carrier was quicker to ascend and evade the blast. The ice wave sailed under the carrier as it once again opened fire on Samus. Samus was not deterred, though. She quickly switched to her Wave Beam and charged it. Knowing that it would be tougher to evade lightning, she unleashed her Wavebuster upon the remaining ATC as it fired another volley of energy blasts on her.

Lightning erupted from her arm cannon and instantly arced towards the ATC. Upon striking the ATC, electricity arced across its hull as its systems were overloaded and burned out by the electrical assault. The craft's engines quickly went dark and it was transformed into nothing but a deadweight, which quickly came crashing down to the ground. It fell to the ground a fair distance away from Samus and exploded upon impact. Samus then went over to the wounded Space Pirates, who were still trying to inflict damage on her and, switching to her Plasma Beam, took them out with single shots to the head. Once the Space Pirates had been dealt with, she made her way over to the entrance to Mount Coronet.

Back in Goldenrod City, Cyrus stood inside his command center, surrounded by his current Team Galactic Executives, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, and Charon. Saturn had since left Team Galactic and had even defected to the Earth forces in revealing his knowledge of Cyrus's plans. Of all of the Team Galactic commanders, only Mars, Jupiter, and Charon had been commanders in Team Galactic during his first attempt to create a new universe. Now, as he looked around, he found that he had representatives of all major planets, save for Earth and Saturn, and even one of the objects in the Kuiper belt. They all stood around the computer screen as Venus input the data that she had gathered from the various scans that she and her escort had managed to obtain before being chased away by a group of Pokémon Trainers and supposedly wild Pokémon.

"There's little doubt in my mind," Venus, the tall blond-haired, green-eyed executive began. "Given the amount of energy emanating from this area," she pointed to a large area that was highlighted orange on the screen, "along with the fact that we were chased away by a group of Pokémon Trainers, I think that it's safe to conclude that this is the location of the Sinjoh Ruins."

"It makes sense," Uranus, a young human male with red hair and gray eyes interjected. "It's way north of Johto," he said, pointing to the location of the Johto Region of Japan, compared to the locations of both Sinnoh and the supposed Sinjoh Ruins, "but not so far away from Sinnoh that the people from the two regions could not interact with each other. We'll need to get in close for a closer scan, but that should not be too much of a problem."

"But what about those Pokémon Trainers and other defenders?" Venus asked. "There's no way that they're going to let us pass without a fight. Besides, chances are that the Pokémon League Champions already know the location of the Ruins as well and will assemble there if we so much as glance in its general direction for merely in instant."

Cyrus gave a smirk. "That's why we aren't going alone." Turning to Mercury, he said, "Assemble a defense force and tell them that they'll be escorting us on our journey, but make it quiet. I don't want to draw too much attention to us. I have a call to make. I want to bring in some extra defenders, just in case."

The others bowed and replied, "Yes, sir." With that, they made the necessary preparations to depart for what Cyrus hoped would be the Sinjoh Ruins. His heart raced as he went to call the Star Fox Team. He was so close to his goal, and he would not let _anything_ stand in his way.

Over on Mount Coronet, Fox McCloud watched as Samus battled Kraid and, later, the two Space Pirate ATCs. He was shocked to find that the likely Wolfen II pilot that had taken down his entire team was Samus Aran, a bounty hunter who was far better known for being a foot soldier than a starfighter pilot like members of the Star Fox Team were. Only Krystal was known better as a foot soldier than a pilot, though she had quickly proven herself in the cockpit of an Arwing fighter. As Samus was facing down Kraid, Fox was careful to observe the battle from a distance, making sure that he did not get noticed by either Kraid or the bounty hunter. As he watched, he thought back to the disastrous dogfight his team had had against her one Wolfen II. While the Wolfen II was a tremendous starfighter, he and his team had taken down a quartet of such fighters, piloted by mercenary pilots on a par with the Star Fox Team in the form of Star Wolf. Thinking about the battle, he remembered that the Wolfen II had demonstrated an ability that it had not demonstrated in its only previous use during the Battle of Venom in the Lylat Wars. He smirked to himself and realized that the bounty hunter that had shot him down had merely used the fighter to its full effect, and had taken advantage of the fact that the team had been flying with damage.

He was shaken out of his reverie when a beep came from his jacket pocket. He pulled out a Federation communicator and flipped it open. He put it to his ear, much like an old Earth cell phone, and listened as Cyrus said, "Is this Fox McCloud?"

"Yeah," the tan-furred humanoid fox replied.

"Good," Cyrus answered. "Fox, I have a special mission for you. At the end of this mission, you will receive payment in the form of one million Gold Federation Credits."

"What's the mission?" Fox asked; his interest piqued by the promise of money. Still, he could not help but notice a feeling of suspicion rising in his heart at the mention of the reward for accepting the mission being one million Gold Federation Credits.

"I need your squadron to fly escort for me and a group of special Galactic Federation Troopers. I want your squadron to rendezvous with me as quickly as possible."

"That might be a problem, sir," Fox told him.

"What do you mean?" Cyrus asked, his voice showing signs of concern.

"While we were finishing the mission to open a hole in the planetary shields that would allow your troops to fly through, we encountered Samus Aran. After engaging her in a battle, our fighters were shot down. We should have replacements shortly, but she has since gone into Mount Coronet. I wish to remain here so we can finish her off should she survive the Space Pirates inside."

"She will," Cyrus told him. "And as for your wishes, it is imperative that I manage to get at least three fighters to cover me. If the Earth's military forces find out about my move, or Star Wolf enters the fray, then we'll be in a great deal of trouble."

"Perhaps we should stay out of the mission," Fox suggested. "Our presence at Mount Coronet would draw attention away from you, while you could search for whatever you need to find unmolested."

"No," came the voice of Cyrus over the comm, far more calmly than usual. "I don't trust that my other forces will be sufficient should we be discovered. While I _do_ wish to avoid discovery, I want to take the necessary precautions such that should we be discovered, we would still be able to put up a fight against any pursuers."

"I understand sir," Fox said. "I'll get most of my squad, and a friend, over to help you. But I _do_ wish to remain behind so as to deal with Samus."

"She embarrassed you that badly?" Cyrus asked with a note of humor.

Fox nodded with a sullen expression. "Yeah," he answered in a melancholy tone. "Still, she's quite a dangerous enemy and at the very least, I can keep her away from _you_."

Cyrus was silent for a moment before speaking again, saying, "You have a point Fox. Send in your help, but if you and another of your squad wish to remain behind to deal with Samus, then feel free to do so. Her demise would make me feel a lot more comfortable."

"Understood, sir," Fox said. "Fox out." He then closed the channel.

He soon pressed the code for an alternate channel and reactivated the communicator, speaking into it, saying, "ROB, this is Fox, do you copy?"

"I read you loud and clear," came the mechanical voice of ROB over his comm. "You and the others disappeared from sensors. What is your situation?"

"We were shot down by Samus Aran in a dogfight," Fox responded with a grimace.

"Four elite pilots were beaten by a foot soldier?" ROB asked in disbelief. "Is this a joke?"

"No joke," Fox lamented. "We were flying with shield damage, though."

"That's no excuse," ROB cut in. "It's still four-on-one. Zombies could win under those circumstances."

_I'll have to tell Slippy to extract and modify his personality chip when we get back to base and make him more like he was during the Lylat Wars_, Fox thought, making the note to himself. "She was flying a Wolfen II that seemed to have some upgrades, not the least of which was the ability to charge and fire a Homing Laser. At least, we managed to take down the fighter."

"Too bad it cost you all four of your specialty fighters to do so," ROB countered. "And she still survived the fight, and on the ground, you'd get wasted if you fought her again."

"ROB, we need four Arwings, and possibly a Landmaster for me. I'm going to follow her into that base."

"You alone?" ROB asked. "Did that defeat scramble your brain? That would be a _huge_ mistake, especially since the only Landmaster I have onboard is designed for anti-aircraft combat, not anti-ground vehicle combat."

"Which is strange since I have found our current Landmaster to be _less_ effective against enemy aircraft than its previous incarnation, which was supposedly more of an all arounder tank, rather than an anti-aircraft specialty tank."

"Finally noticed that, huh," ROB commented sarcastically. "Perhaps you should get a refund." His voice soon became more serious as he got back to the issue at hand. "If I send down the Arwings, will you make sure that you bring these back in one piece? These are all the fighters you've got left, you know, and your recent track record against some of your stronger enemies is less than stellar, just so you know. You lose these, and you're S.O.L."

"Yeah, I know." Fox answered harshly. He did not need ROB to remind him of the recent humiliation of being embarrassed by a foot soldier who, while a good pilot, did not earn her fame for her starship piloting abilities. "Just get them down here. We need them right now. Without her Wolfen, Samus is stuck on the ground. We can just bomb her with Smart Bombs from the safety of our Arwings. She can't beat four fighters that are armed with nuclear-level ordnance. Heck, _two_ fighters should be enough."

"Yeah, well, don't forget that we're, or rather _you're_ getting low on cash, here," ROB notified. "It cost a pretty credit to reinstall all of the military hardware back on this assault carrier. Not to mention the fact that it'll cost a lot of money to rebuild the Arwings or that you lost in that battle. You only have these four Arwings and one Landmaster left, with the armaments already installed on them. We're also maxing out on our spare parts."

"I know," Fox retorted. "Don't worry. We'll be able to deal with Samus, one way or the other. When she's done with the Space Pirates, we'll deal with her then. Just get those ships and tank down here."

Fox then waited for a few moments until he saw a Landmaster appear close to him. "I sent you your Landmaster, along with Arwings for the rest of your squad. I'm keeping your Arwing up here until you need it. I don't want to risk it getting stolen by some hacker or hotshot pilot that has a hacker ally. Okay?"

"Fine," Fox sighed. "Just make sure that you keep the channel open. I may need to talk with you in the future."

"Will do," ROB replied.

Fox then cut the channel. _Yep, definitely need Slip to adjust his personality and sarcasm chips; as in, eliminate them_. He then switched his communicator to another channel and activated it. As he did so, he heard the sounds of battle and weapons fire come in over the bridge. He then spoke into the speaker, saying, "Peppy, this is Fox, how are things going up there?"

"Fine, for now, Fox," came the voice of the current leader of the Cornerian military. "Don't worry about the sounds of the fighting. We're just finishing up a volley of cannon fire. My flagship is part of the attacking force that jumped into weapons range. As for the rest of the Federation fleet, it's taken some damage, but reinforcements are coming in. For every ship we lose, two come in to take its place. Why do you ask?"

"Could you possibly join us down here?" Fox asked. "We just got beaten by Samus in a Wolfen and are in need of support down here, especially since Samus is now dealing with Space Pirates and we've been called in by Cyrus to rendezvous with him over Goldenrod City. Krystal and I are going to stay down here to wait for Samus. Falco and Slippy will need some help, especially if Star Wolf decides to enter the fray."

"A bounty hunter not particularly known for her piloting ability beat you?" Peppy asked in disbelief, though there was no hint of mocking in his voice, unlike with ROB.

"Yeah," Fox sighed. "We were flying with some shield damage, but I'm still as surprised, and embarrassed, by it as ever. So, can you get down here? ROB sent us some Arwings and a Landmaster, but I have to split up the squadron. Cyrus requested our presence to escort him to a special location. I think that he may have found the Sinjoh Ruins. I'm sending Slippy and Falco with Cyrus. Krystal and I are going to stay at Mount Coronet and wait for Samus to come out."

"I'll be there as soon as possible," Peppy said. "Do you want me to rendezvous with you first, or just go straight to Goldenrod?"

"Go to Goldenrod with Slippy and Falco. Krystal and I can deal with Samus, should she survive inside the mountain. And if she doesn't, we can bomb the mountain if worst comes to worst."

"Are there any innocents that could be killed by bombing the mountain?" Peppy asked.

"Not that I know of," Fox answered. "The mountain's destruction shouldn't be a threat to the surrounding towns and cities, either. The routes that lead between the towns, cities, and the mountain are also mostly deserted. Cyrus and the Galactic Federation have pretty firm control over the region."

"Good. I'll get down there as quickly as possible."

"Thanks Peppy," Fox said as he went over to the Landmaster.

As soon as he arrived, he entered the tank and proceeded to open a channel to the rest of the team. "Hey everyone, this is Fox. Have you found your old Arwings yet?"

A chorus of replies soon filled his headset.

"Falco here, I'm headin' towards my ride now."

"This is Krystal. My Arwing appeared a hundred meters away and I'm on my way now."

"This is Slippy. I'm already in and ready to go. What's the plan?"

Fox then answered, "Okay everyone, I just received orders from Cyrus to rendezvous with him in Goldenrod City. From there, you'll fly escort for him as he flies to the Sinjoh Ruins. Peppy'll be joining you two as well."

"Peppy?" Slippy asked enthusiastically.

Fox nodded. "Yeah, Peppy's coming down to fly with you. He'll be team leader in my absence."

"What'll _you_ be doing?" Falco asked.

"I'll be staying here with Krystal," Fox answered. "Samus, the pilot of the Wolfen II that just defeated us, went inside the mountain, here, which seems to be a Space Pirate base. She'll have to come out some time. When she does, we'll be waiting for her. If not, I'll be going in to search for her, myself." He then opened a private channel to Krystal. "Krystal, do you copy?"

"Yes," she answered.

"I'll need you to fly a holding pattern over the mountain. Keep your scanners active. If you spot her before I do, tell me. Once you do, don't hold back. Open fire with everything you've got."

Krystal took a few moments to respond, "Understood." Fox could tell that her voice was wavering. She was uneasy with using her Arwing to what would amount to slaughtering a foot soldier.

"Don't forget the danger that she poses," Fox admonished. "Samus managed to take all of us down just now. She's fighting for the enemy. We might not be members of the Galactic Federation, but they _are_ our allies and we promised to assist them in their hour of need. And if Cyrus is successful in his mission, then a great enemy to peace and freedom will be destroyed. In order to ensure the success of Cyrus's mission and the safety of the Galactic Federation, we must neutralize Samus Aran any way we can, capture or kill. But I think you know that with enemies as powerful as her, killing is likely going to be our only option."

"I understand," Krystal responded. With that response, Fox drove his tank to the nearest entrance to the mountain and waited, hoping that the entrance would be the exit that Samus used to leave the mountain.

Up in orbit, Peppy Hare looked out the window of the bridge of a Cornerian Battlecruiser, a larger, more powerful, version of the Cornerian Cruiser. The Federation in Exile fleet had inflicted significant losses on the attacking force, forcing it to retreat, but the Federation fleet still had a great number of ships with which to use. In addition, slowly, but surely, the Federation in Exile fleet was slowly being pushed back towards Earth. It would only be a matter of time until the Federation fleet managed to overwhelm the defenders and either scatter or destroy the fleet. He watched as a wave of fighters made their way towards the shield opening over Japan, only to be blown out of the stars before they even got close. _I've gotta plan this carefully_, Peppy thought. He soon looked over at his executive officer, John Husky, a humanoid gray-furred dog-like male. "Captain Husky, I have to go down to the surface. You're in command of the Cornerian fleet."

"Understood, General," the Cornerian husky answered.

Peppy then left the bridge and rushed down to the hangar bay. A wing of Cornerian fighters was scheduled to launch and he would be joining them. He entered the turbolift that would take him down to the hangar and waited for it to arrive. Along the way, he thought about Corneria's involvement in the Galactic Federation Civil War. Many of its citizens had been against the Corneria military's involvement in a foreign civil war, but since the Galactic Federation was an ally of Corneria, he had felt that it was his duty to help their allies in their hour of need. Former General Pepper and a contingent of the Cornerian Army, however, had disagreed, stating that Corneria did not know enough about the circumstances of the war, citing the fact that while Elric was known to be a traitor, many of Elric's surviving forces were working with Cyrus. Indeed, Cyrus had, himself, been a subordinate of Elric. While Cyrus had used his charisma to bring in not only Corneria, but many other worlds and Federation members to support his side, including the N'Kren and Ylla, almost all of the human worlds were either firmly set against him, or were at best neutral, if not tacitly on the side of the Federation in Exile. Peppy prayed every day since the beginning of this war that he was doing the right thing, and that he was on the right side. So far, he had not been ordered to do anything that would make him doubt his choice, but he had heard rumors that other members of the Federation military had been far more ruthless. He watched as Admiral Breaz had sent another wave of capital ships to their deaths and wondered if the Federation was as pure as it had claimed.

Soon, the lift reached the hangar bay and the doors slid open. Peppy entered the bay and found that the other fighters had already launched, leaving only his own Arwing. He went over to his fighter and boarded it. Once inside the cockpit, he began the startup sequence. The lights came online and the status monitor appeared. This Arwing was equipped with twin Hyper Lasers and three Smart Bombs. The lasers could charge to create a Homing Charged Shot. Once he saw that everything was in order, he told flight control, "This is General Peppy, requesting clearance to depart."

A response came swiftly. "This is flight control. You are cleared to depart. Good luck."

Peppy smiled as the catapult aimed his fighter towards the open door. Once it was lined up, it launched the fighter out of the cruiser.

Once out into space, Peppy gunned the engines and headed straight towards Earth. He checked his scanners and found that he was able to make a micro-jump towards the planet. He activated his ship's faster-than-light drive and entered subspace for a brief instant.

He almost instantly reverted back to normal space just above Earth's atmosphere. He immediately initiated a barrel roll and several beams were deflected by the shield that was produced. Looking forward, he saw that the shield hole was closing. Apparently, Earth was quick to repair its damaged shield projector. He accelerated towards the hole as the wave of fighters launched from the Cornerian flagship flew towards the hole as well. The Heavy Defense Platform, which was unengaged by any capital ships, focused on the fighters and promptly annihilated them with a single barrage of laser fire. This distraction, however, allowed Peppy to make it into Earth's atmosphere and through the hole in the shields just before they closed. A couple of Heavy Assault Transports had not been so lucky and crashed into the shields, exploding upon impact. Saying a silent prayer for those that were lost in the crash, he set course for Goldenrod City, and gunned his throttle.

Back in Mount Coronet, Samus entered the mountain and found herself in a cave with a rocky floor. To her right a little ways forward was a small pool and waterfall on the far end of the pool, which seemed to be the end of a small underground river. Inside the cave, she came across ten Space Pirate Troopers, and two Golden Torizos. The sight of the Golden Torizos surprised her, and disturbed her a bit, for the Torizos were Chozo statuary that was given the ability to move and defend their designated station. She grimaced and readied her arm cannon, checking her missile supply and seeing that she was quite low. She remembered from previous encounters that the Golden Torizos were able to catch missiles and Super Missiles, so she would not have to waste missiles defeating them. Still, she did not like the prospect of having to face down ten Space Pirate Troopers along with the two Golden Torizos. Wanting to take out the Space Pirates quickly, so she could focus on the Torizos, she switched to her Ice Beam and charged it just as the Golden Torizos were launching gold energy waves from their hands. Using her Screw Attack, she barreled through the energy waves and suffered no damage at all. She then uncurled herself and targeted the Space Pirate Troopers, all of who were firing their blue energy pulses from their energy assault rifles. Samus dodged the aims of the cannons, and thus, the energy blasts, with the grace of a professional dancer. She retaliated by launching her Ice Spreader shot right at the Pirates. The Pirates, not expecting her to use a Charge Beam combination, were unprepared for the attack and were caught off guard. The expanding wall of energy reached the Pirates and engulfed them, along with the two Golden Torizos. The Pirates were frozen solid, and while the Torizos were not frozen completely solid, ice covered their torsos and parts of their legs, rendering them immobile. Not wanting to waste any more missiles, she switched to her Power Beam and charged it. Once the beam was charged, she fired a single orange blast of energy at the massive ice sculpture. Upon striking the sculpture, the ice block shattered, along with the ten Pirates frozen inside. That merely left the two Golden Torizos, which Samus took this opportunity to scan so she could get a health reading on them. Her scan read, _Morphology – Golden Torizo. Subjects are based upon statues that were left on the planet Zebes and taken control of by the Space Pirates. Subjects have strong shields and durable armor. For offense, they can fire energy waves, fireballs, and can launch boulders. Scans indicate the presence of organic technology and metallic compounds native to Zebes, but also samples of steel and other metals created on or native to Earth, indicating the possibility that these Torizos were built on world._

As soon as she finished reading the scan, the life bars of the two Golden Torizos appeared, showing that the two Torizos still had about three quarters of their health remaining. Remembering her last battle with them, she selected her Plasma Beam and charged it as the two statues unleashed a volley of fireballs at her. She dodged the incoming fireball volley and unleashed her Plasma Beam at the lead Torizo. The blast struck the Torizo in the chest, causing it to issue a groan. The two semi-organic statues then charged towards Samus, prompting her to back away. As she retreated from the two statues, she charged her Plasma Beam. Once it was fully charged, she unleashed a second shot at the lead Torizo. The Torizo groaned again after taking the hit, but the damage inflicted did not force it backwards or stagger it at all. She moved to her left and ran in a circle so as to avoid the Torizos as she continued to fire Charged Plasma Beam shots at the Torizos. However, she noticed that each shot, while it was inflicting noticeable damage, was not inflicting enough damage, while several of the energy waves and fireball volleys were colliding with her, inflicting twenty points of damage to her suit per hit. While it was not all that much in the grand scheme of things, considering the fact that she still had to go through this Space Pirate base with the limited armaments meant that if she saved her weapons for later fights, that she would likely suffer too much shield damage to be able to have a chance against her parents if, indeed, it did come down to a fight between her and her parents.

After a couple more Charged Plasma blasts, she found that the lead Torizo was down to half his original health. Seeing this as her chance to inflict some real damage, she switched back to her Ice Beam and charged it, preparing another Ice Spreader blast. As she did so, both Torizos launched golden energy waves at her, forcing her to Screw Attack into the air in order to either dodge or have her Screw Attack shields absorb the blows. Her golden Screw Attack shields were buffeted by the energy waves, but they did not break. After the attack ended, she uncurled herself and fired her Ice Spreader at the Golden Torizos. The expanding wave of ice erupted from her arm cannon and struck the Torizos, this time managing to encase them in ice and freeze them solid. However, the ice was already beginning to melt by the time she switched to her Power Beam. She charged her Power Beam and targeted the lead frozen Golden Torizo. Once it was charged, she fired on the statue and blew a massive hole in the torso of the ice statue. The rest of the statue fell over and immediately shattered into a thousand shards of ice. Now, there was only one Golden Torizo left, and while it had just defrosted, it was now down to only half of its remaining health.

Seeing that the Ice Spreader was a very useful weapon for dealing with the Torizo, Samus decided to try it on the last of the Golden Torizos. She charged her Ice Beam, going evasive as the Golden Torizo unleashed a volley of energy waves towards her. She managed to avoid the energy waves and leveled her arm cannon at the Torizo. Before she could fire, though, the Torizo launched a hail of fireballs her way, hoping to not only inflict damage to her, but also to neutralize her Ice Beam, and by extension, her Ice Spreader. Some of the fireballs scored direct hits on her torso, but they did not manage to negate the Ice Beam's charge. She retaliated by firing an icy wave of freezing energy from her Ice Spreader at the final Torizo. The Torizo was too slow to maneuver and the expanding wave of energy ensured that the statue would not merely be able to sidestep the blast. The icy blast caught the Torizo squarely in the chest and expanded upon impact, freezing the statue solid. Samus immediately switched back to her Power Beam, activated the Spazer setting so as to punch numerous holes into the frozen statue, charged it, and unleashed a Charged Shot before the Torizo could defrost. The shotgun blast of orange energy erupted from her arm cannon as she charged the statue and the frozen Golden Torizo was punctured by numerous orange blasts of energy, each of them entering through the front part of the body and exiting out the other end. The Torizo's structural integrity was completely compromised and statue caved in on itself. With the Torizo gone, Samus scanned her surroundings to make sure that there were no more enemies present. When she was satisfied that she had taken out all of the Pirates in this area, she proceeded deeper into the cave.

As she went deeper into the cave, she came across numerous animals and wildlife that resembled other types of Earth wildlife, but were noticeably different in some ways. She suspected that these creatures were the Pokémon that she had heard about. As she continued into the cave, the Pokémon, many of them resembling bats, with others resembling living boulders, scattered before her. She ignored them as she passed. She did not want to pick a fight with any of the wildlife if she could help it. Not too far into the cave, she came to a wall that seemed like a dead end. She quickly spied a ledge above, but turning to her right, she saw the waterfall next to her empty into the lake. Above the waterfall, she spied another ledge that had a door. Using her Screw Attack, she jumped up to the ledge and proceeded to make her way through the door.

On the other side of the door, she found herself in a small room with a computer that had a large number of wires leading from the console at the far end of the wall, into the ground. Another set of wires connected the console to a small chamber just right of the console. Inside the chamber was a N'Kren soldier. The soldier was writhing as she noticed wires connected to his head, and orange lights leading out of his head and towards the computer. The Space Pirates were trying to download his mind into the computer. She also noticed another computer on the right wall, but she ignored it for the time being. Standing at the console at the far end of the room were two regular Space Pirate Troopers. Turning around, they immediately saw Samus and opened fire on the bounty hunter. Utilizing her Screw Attack, she protected herself from attack and charged forward as the Pirates fired uselessly against her. When she got close to the Pirates, they fled to either side. When she arrived at the console, she uncurled herself and quickly switched to her Plasma Beam. She charged the beam and targeted the Space Pirate Trooper to her right, while slinging her Grapple Voltage to the Space Pirate to her left. The Charged Plasma Beam shot burned through the shields and armor of the Space Pirate Trooper to her right, incinerating him, while the purple Grapple Voltage made contact with the other Space Pirate Trooper. Upon making contact with the Trooper, the beam turned blue as she drew that Space Pirate's energy into her own suit. As more of the energy was siphoned off into her suit, the Space Pirate's armor went dark, the strength leaving the Space Pirate. Eventually, the Space Pirate fell to the ground, being rendered unconscious by the attack. Samus finished him off with a single uncharged Plasma Beam shot to the head, vaporizing the Pirate's head and upper torso.

Once she was finished dealing with the two Space Pirate Troopers, she approached the console and activated her Scan Visor. She scanned the console and the scan came back, reading, _Computer console is downloading the knowledge of the N'Kren soldier in adjacent chamber into its memory banks. Press red button to reverse the process. The computer and its connection with the captive can be terminated with a single Charged Shot of the Wave Beam._

With that knowledge, Samus went over to the console and pressed the red button, as her scan had directed her to. Once the button was pressed, the orange lights ceased entirely, rather than follow a line back to the prisoner. She gave it a few seconds, but it appeared as if nothing was happening. Fearing the worst, but hoping for the best, she switched to her Wave Beam, charged her it, and fired on the console. Immediately upon impact, electricity arced across the console. The lights went dark and the hum of the computer that pervaded the room went silent.

After the computer was deactivated, Samus rushed over to the adjacent chamber holding the N'Kren soldier and opened the door. Once the chamber was open, she scanned the N'Kren, but her scans indicated that the soldier was already dead. Hoping that N'Kren technology could revive this soldier, just as it had for her parents, she took off the emergency teleporter unit and prepared to activate it. However, upon nearing the soldier so he could be sent back to the N'Kren flagship, she noticed a device on his chest that seemed to be counting down. Knowing that it was a prelude to a bomb, Samus ran out of the chamber just as the timer reached zero and the bomb exploded, blowing out the chamber, collapsing it in the process. Smoke and debris erupted from the entrance to the collapsed chamber, but Samus was already away from the chamber, having jumped down the waterfall and into the lake as the chamber exploded.

After the chamber was destroyed, Samus emerged from the water and Screw Attacked to the ledge on the right side of the underground lake. She made her way towards a set of stairs and ascended them. Once she reached the top, she found a group of computer consoles to her right, as well as a mechanical eye hanging from the ceiling. As she approached, the eye opened and a yellow light shined on her. Remembering this as one of the scanners that the Space Pirates used in their base on Zebes, she was unconcerned. She figured that the Space Pirates already knew that she was here. She went over to the computers and found a map station among them. Going over to the map station, she scanned it, and when the scan read that it was free of any viruses, she plugged her arm cannon into the socket and downloaded the map of the Space Pirate base to her logbook. Once that was finished, she headed over to an exit and left the cave.

Once outside, she found that she was back on the same ledge that she had been on when she entered the Space Pirate base. Opening her logbook, she went to her map and studied it intently for several minutes. Once she was able to formulate a plan and a path to her goal, she proceeded to walk to the edge of the ledge, and jumped down to a thin ledge below. She followed the path along the ledge, encountering no Pirates, traps, or other defenses. Soon, she came upon another entrance to the mountain. Checking her map, she found that this entrance would eventually lead her to her desired destination. Without any hesitation, she made her way into the Space Pirate base.

Deep inside the basement of Mount Coronet, Space Pirate High Command sat in their makeshift command center. They watched the screens as the image of Samus Aran appeared on their monitors. The faces of the Pirate Commanders went wide in horror. "Oh my darkness, the Hunter is here!" one of the Commanders cried.

"The Hunter has found us!" yelled a second Commander.

Mother Brain, who sat motionlessly inside her stasis tank behind the command center, scoffed at the cowardice of Space Pirate High Command. "I'm shocked that you're surprised by her appearance," she said in a cool demeanor. "I would have thought that the loss of Kraid and two ATCs would have been enough to alert you to the prospect of Samus having come."

"So, what do we do, Mother?" a third Pirate Commander cried. "She's downloaded a map of out base, and we haven't had much time to excavate a base, here. It'll be only a matter of time before she arrives here and kills us."

"Then the solution to your problem is simple," Mother Brain said evenly. "Go as a group to confront her and kill her. You outnumber her ten-to-one, and that's without bringing in your support."

"But what about Ridley and Rodney and Virginia Aran? Why can't you send _them_ to deal with her?"

"Because I need them to remain here and coordinate the defense of the base," she answered nonchalantly. "The ten of you, plus the rest of the cannon fodder troops, should be more than enough to deal with her. If you need more than that, then you've got problems."

The Space Pirate Commanders of High Command seethed at her order. They did not view Mother Brain's excuse for sending them as legitimate, but they did not dare go against her. _It would have been simpler to say that you're stronger than we are combined and you want to use __us__ to find out what new abilities Samus has, without wasting your more valuable generals, Ridley and the Techno Lords_, one of the Commanders thought with annoyance. Mother Brain easily picked up on the thought but decided to let it pass. All ten of the Space Pirate Commanders would be necessary for her purposes. After all, she needed them to get Samus to expend her ammunition against _them_ so that when she arrived to face _her_, the bounty hunter would be out of ammunition for the battle. The Pirates of High Command soon stood up and prepared to leave the command center. Before leaving, though, they activated a the intercom and commanded, "Any and all remaining Space Pirates. We have a security breach. The Hunter has appeared inside out base and is searching for us. Activate all security drones at once. In addition, Squadrons Five through Ten are to form up and join their respective Space Pirate Commanders on the second floor, Sector Three. The rest of you are to join us in the Mount Coronet Basement. We will be the last line of defense for Mother Brain."

"Understood," came a chorus of responses.

Mother Brain scowled at Commander One and asked in a suspicious voice, "Why have only five of you to face her?"

"So that we can find out the strengths and weaknesses of the Hunter without getting everyone killed," the Space Pirates answered. "Besides, if we are all beaten upstairs, then the Hunter can replenish her weaponry and casually saunter down here and face you all alone. With us, you'll at least have _some_ protection should the Hunter make it past the other Commanders and their troops, her parents, and Ridley."

Mother Brain narrowed her gaze on the Commander as he ushered Commanders Five through Ten out of the command center and over to the elevator. "Coward," the organic supercomputer muttered as the Pirate went about his work, and sent half of his remaining forces to what would likely be their deaths.

Up on the third floor of the mountain, Samus Aran entered the mountain on the peak's lower entrance. She found herself in a relatively narrow corridor with a pair of SATs that had to have been either given to them by Cyrus, or stolen from a Galactic Federation weapons cache somewhere. Upon spotting the bounty hunter, the SATs leveled their assault rifles and opened fire. The robots only had standard Army Trooper assault rifles, though, and the projectiles launched by the rifles did not inflict any damage to the shields of Samus's suit. She responded by firing two uncharged Plasma Beam blast at the weak robots. The blasts burned through the torsos of the robots and felled them. With the robots having been dispatched, she proceeded down the corridor.

A ways down the corridor, she came upon a squad of eight Space Pirate Troopers. Not wanting to waste her missiles, she kept her distance since they had not detected her yet and charged her Plasma Beam. She soon activated the Spazer setting and, while the shotgun-like blast would not necessarily kill the Pirates, it would allow her to inflict damage to many more Pirates than a single blast would. She soon rushed forward and fired her Charged Spazer Plasma Beam blast at the Pirate Squad before they had a chance to respond. The blast spread out from her cannon and struck four Space Pirates. While the damage was not fatal, she quickly charged a second blast to unleash on the Pirates. As she was doing so, the Pirates all turned and targeted her, opening fire with their assault energy rifles and plasma missiles. Dodging their aim, along with some of the slower plasma missiles, she unleashed a second shot upon the first four that she had fired upon, hiding in front of them so that in order to hit her, the other Pirates would have to fire through their comrades, which a couple of them did. The Spazer shot struck the four Pirates and, with the damage inflicted by both the first Spazer shot, as well as the "friendly" fire of the Space Pirates behind them, breached their shields and armor, burning numerous holes in their bodies. The four Pirates fell over onto the floor, dead or dying. Samus quickly turned to face the other four Pirates and, seeing that she was still in the narrow corridor, decided that it would be safer in the cramped confines of the corridor to use her Screw Attack to deal with the remaining Pirates. After all, they were limited in their mobility as well. She somersaulted through the air towards the Pirates and activated her Screw Attack. The Pirates, tried to flee the hunter, but she was too quick, and the corridor too narrow, for them to be able to escape. She barreled through the four remaining Pirates, annihilating two of them, taking the head off of a third that tried to duck beneath her, and the legs and waist off of a fourth that tried to jump over her. The sole surviving Pirate fell to the floor, crying aloud in agony as he landed without his waist and legs. Samus put an end to his suffering with a single plasma blast to the head. With the small squad of Space Pirates having been dealt with, she continued along the corridor.

The rest of the journey down the corridor was not very eventful. She continued to Screw Attack down the corridor just incase she ran into any Stealth Pirates. She did not run into any Pirates, but she _did_ come across some Mega Turrets, defense turrets that had not been seen since her adventure on Tallon IV. She plowed through the turrets with her Screw Attack and continued down the corridor until she came to a set of stairs. She went down the stairs and found herself on top of a two staircases that went down in different directions. Checking her map, she found that one of the staircases took her to a recharge station room, while the other took her further down into the base. Seeing that she was low on missile ammunition, as well as having her shields taking some damage, she turned to her left and went down the stairs.

Down the stairs, she found herself in a small room with four Zebesian Space Pirates standing guard. She shot and killed the Zebesian quartet before they even managed to turn to face her. Once they were defeated, she went to the recharge station and, not one to take foolish chances, scanned it to make sure that it was not a trap. The scan came back, reading, _Mechanism – Recharge Station. This recharge station is based upon Chozo technology and will refill your energy and ammunition. There are no anomalous readings associated with this recharge station_. That was what she wanted to know. She made her way into the recharge station and waited as the station replenished her shield energy. Once she was replenished, she exited the station, her health and ammunition fully restored.

She ascended the staircase and then followed her map down the next staircase. At the end of the stairs, she found herself in a small room, guarded by a Torizo. This Torizo resembled the weak Bomb Torizo she had fought on her second mission back to Zebes, and she charged her Plasma Beam and unleashed a vicious blast of orange-red energy upon the statue as it stood and spewed forth a series of fireballs her way. She dodged the fireballs as the Charged Plasma Beam scored a direct hit on the Torizo's chest and blew a large hole into it. The Torizo fell over onto the ground and ceased moving. Just to make sure that it was dead, Samus unloaded several more plasma blasts into the statue. Once she was certain that it was destroyed, she made her way down a small set of stairs and to the exit. Checking her map, she saw that the area ahead would be a great place for the Space Pirates to set up an ambush, so she charged her Plasma Beam and steeled herself for the likely battle to come. When she was ready, she made her way over to the door and went on through.

On the other side, she entered a large chamber with stone structures, and bridges that crossed the structures. The bridges looked to be of human construction, but that did not mean that the Space Pirates did not use them, for there were numerous Space Pirates in the room, with many of them located on the various bridges. Standing in front of her, though, was a Space Pirate wearing ornate and what looked to be formidable battle armor. She suspected that he was a Space Pirate Commander, but she did not remember the armor being as ornate as what she saw standing before her. Just as she normally did with new enemies, or enemies that she had not faced in a while, she scanned the Pirate Commander, the scan coming back, reading, _Morphology – Space Pirate High Commander. Subject wears powerful battle armor equipped with strong shielding as well as an energy siphoning system that can be used to power his heavy energy cannon and shields. Subject is armed with the aforementioned heavy energy cannon that can fire both an extremely powerful Charged Shot, as well as be set to rapid-fire anti-personnel mode. In addition, Pirate High Commanders are armed with twin shoulder-mounted missile launchers._

Samus gritted her teeth at this reading. These High Commanders were stronger than they had been at the failed attempt to retake Urtraghus and, after quickly scanning the room; she found that at least five High Commanders were present in this chamber, not to mention their personal cohort. She figured that there had to be at least a few dozen Space Pirates present in this room along with the High Commanders. Thinking fast she ran around on the ground, allowing the Pirates on the bridges above her, as well as the High Commander, to open fire on her. Her fast movement allowed her to evade the fire of the slower Pirates, their fire burning small and large holes, respectively, into the ground, but there were several Space Pirate Commandos present and they had been engineered to "hunt the Hunter." Their enhancements were not just in the form of their armor and weapons, but also in their genetics. They had enhanced physical attributes as well as reflexes. They were able to follow Samus and fire on her with their energy cannons. Samus took a few hits to her shields, but it was nothing that she was not able to shrug off. She lost less than a half an energy tank to the barrage.

Once she had built up enough speed to utilize her Speed Booster, it activated, and Samus came to an immediate stop. Scanning the room before her charge gave out, she spied a Space Pirate Commando standing on one of the bridges in the distance. Using this as her opportunity, she Shinesparked to the Pirate. Afterimages of Samus followed her as she accelerated to supersonic speeds towards the Pirate. She plowed through the High Commander, annihilating him with one hit and then abruptly came to a halt, curling into her Morph Ball form in midair. As she began to fall to the ground, she laid a Power Bomb in the air, which hang suspended in the air for a second before it began to fall. Before it detonated, she uncurled herself and curled herself into a normal human-like ball, and activated her Screw Attack. Her Screw Attack shield protected her as the Power Bomb detonated, producing a blast radius of thirty meters. A dozen Space Pirate Commandos and Troopers were caught in the detonation and killed. One Space Pirate High Commander was caught on the outer edges of the explosion, but his suit's energy siphoning system, shields, and armor kept him alive. However, it came at the cost of his energy siphoning system, shields, and some of his armor.

Samus took advantage of the second Space Pirate High Commander's weakness by quickly switching to her Wave Beam and locking onto the Pirate High Commander. She fired the homing Charged Wave Beam blast and watched as it nearly instantaneously struck the Space Pirate High Commander, electricity arcing across his body. The High Commander writhed in agony as he suffered under the attack and fell to the ground. Switching to her Plasma Beam, she finished off the High Commander with a single charged blast to the head, vaporizing his head and upper torso in the process.

She then Screw Attacked up to the intact part of the bridge that had just had half of its span disintegrated by the Power Bomb and, switching to her Ice Beam, targeted four Space Pirate Commandos and, activating the Spazer feature of her arm cannon, fired on the Pirate Commandos. The shotgun spread of ice blasts struck all four Commandos and froze them solid. Samus then targeted the four frozen Pirate Commandos and fired four missiles at them. The missiles struck the Pirate Commandos and detonated, shattering the frozen Pirates.

She went to search for the next High Commander when one suddenly appeared right in front of her. He unleashed a charged blast from his heavy energy cannon, which struck Samus squarely in the chest, and took off twenty units of energy from her Energy Tank. She switched to her Wave Beam and fired a series of blasts at the Pirate High Commander. The blasts phased through his shields, but his armor managed to absorb the blows without difficulty. Samus suspected that that would not be the case with a Charged Wave Beam blast. She charged her Wave Beam as the Pirate High Commander fired a missile at her, which homed in on her, struck her, and detonated. The missile's detonation hurled her through the air and inflicted fifty points of damage to her energy reserves. While she was nowhere close to critical, she did not want to take too many more hits like that. Fortunately, her Wave Beam was fully charged and she proceeded to unleash her Charged Wave Beam blast upon the Space Pirate. As she did so, the Pirate targeted her with his cannon and sprayed a series of rapid-fire blue energy pulses towards her. Samus took several hits to her suit, taking out the remaining energy in her current Energy Tank, along with twenty units of her next Tank, but she was not concerned, yet. She watched as the trio of purple undulating energy pulses phased through the Pirate High Commander's shield and struck his armor directly. Electricity arced around his armor and the energy cannon and missile launcher sparked, indicating that they were offline. Soon, more Space Pirate Commandos, Troopers, and even a High Commander came to support the stricken High Commander, with the Commandos and the High Commander appearing on the ledge. This was a fatal mistake for them, since Samus took this opportunity to drop a Power Bomb on the remains of the ledge.

She dropped her Power Bomb, using the massive bulk of the stricken Space Pirate High Commander to shield the dropping of her Power Bomb. Once she uncurled her self from her Morph Ball form, she fired a series of blasts from her Wave Beam towards the Pirate Commandos and other Pirate Troopers that had appeared to aid the High Commander. The Wave Beam blasts were not meant to inflict a great deal of damage; they were merely used as a distraction so that the Pirates would not notice the Power Bomb that she had dropped in front of them. When the bomb was about to detonate, she spin-jumped into the air, performing a Screw Attack. The disabled High Commander screamed at the top of his voice, "Get back! There's a Power…" but he could not finish as the Power Bomb exploded, destroying the ledge, and vaporizing the Pirate Troopers and Commandos that were on the ledge. Even the Space Pirate High Commander was unable to escape the blast, for he was too close to ground zero for his suit's defenses to be able to shield him and absorb the energy. Still, his defenses managed to hold out for a fraction of a second before he joined his comrades in death. Seeing the dead Pirates, Samus scanned the area and noticed that the few surviving Space Pirate Commandos were teleporting away from the scene, with some other Space Pirate Troopers headed towards he exit to the next lower level. That left only one Space Pirate High Commander. Samus fell to the ground, where she landed on her feet and scanned for more Pirates. She soon spotted the sole remaining Space Pirate High Commander on the floor.

Unlike his support troops, the remaining Space Pirate High Commander remained to fight Samus. He teleported directly in front of her and fired a series of energy blasts from his energy cannon. Before Samus could retaliate, he teleported to a ledge above and fired a homing missile at her. She dodged the missile's initial pass and focused on the missile, ignoring the subsequent attack on her from the energy cannon. She zeroed in on the missile and shot it down with a single blast from her Wave Beam. After the missile was taken care of, she focused back on the Pirate High Commander, who continuously teleported to and from the ledge, attacking her each time he reappeared. Still, he was following a pattern, one that she picked up on easily. After attacking from a ledge, he always reappeared behind her to shoot her in the back since it would keep him from being spotted. Knowing this, Samus stood still and allowed him to fire on her, inflicting more damage to her shield, as she charged her Wave Beam. She spied him on a ledge, firing down on her. She steeled herself for when he would disappear to attack her from behind. Sure enough, the High Commander vanished from his perch and reappeared directly behind Samus. Just as he disappeared, Samus spun around and unleashed her Wave Beam upon him the split second he reappeared. The Pirate High Commander did not have time to react to Samus's attack and, as such, took the full brunt of the Wave Beam attack. Electricity arced across his armor and his missile launcher and energy cannon were disabled by the attack. Samus pushed the attack home as she switched to her Power Beam and readied a Super Missile. She unleashed the missile on the Pirate, which struck him in his head and exploded. The explosion blew the Pirate High Commander apart, ending the battle.

Once the battle was over, Samus scanned the area and found no living Pirates remaining. Before continuing to the stairwell that would take her down to the next level, though, she backtracked to the recharge station so she could replenish her energy and ammunition once more. She wanted to be at full strength when she went down to the next level to face whatever Space Pirate defenses were down there.

Down in the command center, the five Space Pirate Commanders stared at the screens as they witnessed their comrades get casually annihilated by Samus Aran. The only High Commander to put up a halfway decent fight was P'Maul, and that fight ended with a Wave Beam strike followed by a Super Missile. One of the remaining Commanders went over to the intercom and opened a channel to Ridley. He told the Space Dragon, "Ridley, half of High Command has just been taken out by the Hunter. Are the Techno Lords ready?"

"They sure are," Ridley replied in a satisfied voice that had a hint of sadism in it.

"Then deploy them now!"

"With pleasure."

Now, all the Space Pirate Commanders of High Command could do was wait, and pray to whatever powers they worshipped that the Techno Lords and Ridley would be enough to deal with Samus, for if they were not, then chances were that they would have to face the Hunter, themselves. One of the Space Pirate Commanders, however was surreptitiously making plans for the continuation of the Space Pirates, just incase Samus made her way down here and took out the rest of High Command, along with Mother Brain.

Back a few levels above them, Samus emerged from the recharge station, her energy and ammunition fully replenished. She followed her original path back down to the now ruined level where she had fought what she suspected to be around half of the survivors of Space Pirate High Command and their posse and proceeded to search for the stairwell that would lead her to the next lower level. She quickly found the path that led to the stairwell and proceeded to follow the trail to the stairs. Along the way, she came across a few auto defense turrets that had survived the previous battle. She Screw Attacked past them, letting their energy blast glance off of her shields, and barreled into them, annihilating said turrets. She soon arrived at the stairs and made her way down them, and to whatever awaited her below.

Upon emerging from the human-crafted stairwell, she found herself standing on a ledge overlooking the floor below. There were four underground pools or lakes, as well as several small hills. She focused on the center of the area and her eyes met with the eyes of her greatest nemesis: Ridley. Upon meeting eyes with her nemesis, her expression went cold. Seeing that he was wearing armor of some sort, she scanned him, her scan coming back, _Morphology – Armored Ridley. This is Ridley encased in armor similar to Chozo battle armor. The suit is equipped with shields similar to those found on other Chozo Power Suits, as well as energy projectors, missile launchers, and even bomb and Power Bomb dispensers. In addition, Ridley has his own natural weapons as well, such as his plasma breath, razor-sharp tail and claws, and also his flying ability. In addition, he can harden his skin to make himself more resistant to damage, and render almost any beam weapon useless against him. Engaging him in combat at any range is hazardous at best._

A cold shiver entered her body. This was not a shiver of fear, though, but of excitement. She could hardly contain herself. She knew that this would be it. This would be the final battle. One would live; one would die. She jumped off the ledge and over towards Ridley, who grinned at the sight of the bounty hunter. She then rushed over to the small hill and stood at its base, looking up at him. The Space Dragon looked down at her and said, "I must say, I'm not surprised to see you here. But this is as far as you go. Today, you will die."

"I've beaten you numerous times before, Ridley," Samus proclaimed, trying to get him to remember his more recent defeats, and, thus, intimidate him. "What makes you think that this time will be any different?"

Ridley grinned. "Because I'm not fighting alone," came the dragon's response. "Look behind you."

Samus moved to her right and looked behind her. There, she saw one of the underground lakes. Rising from the water was an elevator. The elevator then opened and a bridge formed from the lift, to the ledge of the lake. Stepping out from the elevator was none other than her own parents, Rodney and Virginia Aran, dressed in the same white clothes, bearing the patch of Space Colony K-2L that Ridley had destroyed on their left breasts. They slowly made their way to the shore, their faces blank but their movements fluid. Once they arrived at the shore, they seemingly slumped forward, as if they were marionettes, and the puppet master was setting down the control strings. A look of horror crossed Samus's face as she stared into their eyes and saw that they were basically reduced to organic robots. Samus stood still, almost as if she were in shock. Ridley laughed. "What's the matter, Hunter? Can't stand the prospect of fighting your own parents? You've killed so many other beings that this should be easy!" He then jumped from the small hill and landed in front of them. They continued to walk forward and parted as they made their way around him, and then formed up back in front of him. A mixture of rage and hatred towards Ridley welled up in her heart, combined with the absolute terror of the prospect of having to fight, and kill, her own parents, even if she managed to kill Ridley beforehand.

"You know you'll have to do it," he taunted in a low voice. "You'll have to kill your own parents. If you don't, you'll die. And I'll be watching as you either kill your own parents, or die trying. And whoever dies, I'll eat their rotting corpse!"

Samus could only stare at her parents, unable to bring herself to even lift her arm cannon towards them. She then saw a tear run down the eyes of each of her parents. It was then that her mother spoke in a faint voice, pleading, "Kill…us."

"Don't…hold…back," her father pleaded, reiterating his wife's wish.

Both humans exposed their wristwatches and pushed a single button on them. A crystal-like spike appeared from each watch and they grabbed them. Pushing another button on their watches and a golden sheen of light shown around them. Immediately, their human forms were replaced with two armored warriors, one wearing golden armor, the other, silver. They drew their swords and pointed them at Samus. "Defend yourself, Hunter!" they called towards her in unison as they charged towards her. The fight between Samus and her parents had begun.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19:

Samus went evasive as her parents charged towards her. She managed to dodge their rushes towards her and turned to face them, activating her Scan Visor so she could scan them and, hopefully, find some weaknesses in their armor or shields. She first scanned her mother, the Techno Lord wearing the silver armor, the scan coming back, reading, _Morphology – Techno Lord: Blaster-class. Techno Lords are the highest-ranking and most powerful of the known Techno Soldiers. In addition to the standard abilities and armaments of a Technoble, the Techno Lord possesses stronger armor, more powerful energy projectors, a higher top speed, both in atmosphere and in outer space, and energy shields. Designed for ranged combat, the Blaster-class of Techno Lord is armed with numerous energy projectors and energy cannons, and has an energy siphoning system that allows it to absorb beam weapons and channel the energy to its own weapons systems. Armored suit is invulnerable all but the strongest of heavy anti-starfighter and capital ship-grade weaponry and has no identifiable weaknesses save for possibly the Wavebuster, but only once the shields are breached and subject is firing his or her energy weapons. Subject inside armor is human female identified as Virginia Aran, formerly of Earth colony K-2L, mother of Samus Aran and wife of Rodney Aran. Scans indicate that the subject has undergone an extensive brainwashing and reprogramming regimen. A single blast from the Wave Beam should neutralize brainwashing and reprogramming once the armor is removed_.

She then focused on the soldier in the gold armored warrior, her father, and scanned him, the scan reading, _Morphology – Techno Lord: Blade-class. Techno Lords are the highest-ranking and most powerful of the known Techno Soldiers. In addition to the standard abilities and armaments of a Technoble, the Techno Lord possesses stronger armor, more powerful energy projectors, a higher top speed, both in atmosphere and in outer space, and energy shields. Designed for close-range combat, the Blade-class of Techno Lord is equipped with numerous blades and energy swords. However, the Blade-class of Techno Lord still possesses the standard chest-mounted energy projectors that all Techno Soldiers Knight-class and above possess, and at the Lord-class, making the Blade-class of Techno Lord still viable in ranged combat. Armored suit is impervious to all but the strongest of heavy anti-starfighter and capital ship-grade weaponry has no identifiable weaknesses save for possibly the Wavebuster, but only once the shields are breached and subject is firing his or her energy weapons. Subject inside of armor is human male identified as Rodney Aran, formerly of Earth colony K-2L, father of Samus Aran and husband of Virginia Aran. Scans indicate that subject has undergone an extensive brainwashing and reprogramming regimen. A single shot from the Wave Beam should neutralize brainwashing and reprogramming once the armor is removed_.

Once she finished the scans, the life and shield bars of the two Techno Lords appeared on the upper part of her HUD, just below her own Energy Tank and shield status readouts. She then readied her arm cannon and steeled her resolve to save her parents, no matter what it took. Her scans indicated that they could still be saved, and she would not fail them, not now; not after having searched for them ever since she discovered that they were still alive. She had lived almost her entire life without her parents, her last memory of them being her mother dying to save her. She would not fail here. She would defeat them and save them without killing them. And then, she would slaughter Ridley.

Both Rodney and Virginia took to the air and flew to the ceiling of the cavern. Drawing their swords, they pointed them at Samus, with Virginia pointing her left hand towards her daughter. The swords began to glow, prompting Samus to sprint towards them in a zigzag pattern, hoping that the evasive pattern would prevent them from getting an accurate bead on her. As she sprinted towards them, she charged her Wave Beam, hoping that a Charged Wave Beam shot would manage to get past the shields of one of them and short out the armor, forcing them to transform back to normal so she could reverse the brainwashing with her Wave Beam. She targeted her father, since his suit did not seem to have an energy siphoning system installed. Once she had locked onto her father, she let fly with the Charged Wave Beam blast. As soon as she fired, her father moved to his left, accelerating to supersonic speeds in an instant in order to evade the attack. Against a slower beam like the Ice Beam, such a ploy might have worked, but the Wave Beam traveled at close to the speed of light. As he began to evade her blast at blinding speeds, the Wave Beam blast followed him and phased through his shields, scoring a direct hit on his armor. Electricity arced across his armor, but he did not seem to slow down at all. Checking her father's life bar, she found that the Charged Wave Beam inflicted no damage at all to him. She gave a small sigh. She had to see if it would work, for she knew that none of her other beam weapons would be effective against her, and her missiles and Super Missiles would not be strong enough to breach their shields. That left only her Power Bombs, Power Missiles, and possibly her Grapple Voltage and Screw Attack.

She then felt a weight hit her in her right side and saw her mother standing before her. Thirty units of energy were depleted from her Energy Tank and she was sent flying. Her mother had struck her with her sword. As she flew through the air, Virginia pointed her now glowing sword towards Samus and let loose a blast of pulsing scarlet energy. The energy blast scored a direct hit on Samus and took out an entire Energy Tank from her shields. She then felt another impact to her back, arresting her momentum, and saw that her next Energy Tank was taken down to forty units of energy. Looking behind her, she saw her father standing behind her, thrusting a red beam sword into her suit. Her shields stopped the initial impact, but since the sword was energy, it continued to inflict damage to her shields at a rate of five points per second. Seeing that this was an opportunity for her to inflict some damage to their suits of armor, as well as test to see just how effective her Power Bombs would be against them, she flicked her left wrist towards her mother and a purple stream of energy erupted from her grapple mount. The Grapple Beam struck her mother and reeled her in. As she did so, the beam turned blue as it was draining her shield of its energy, and replenishing her own in the process. She noticed that the shield bar of her mother was dropping, though the life bar was not depleted by the energy drain. Eventually, she had managed to replenish all of the energy she had lost. She quickly curled into her Morph Ball form and dropped a Power Bomb. Using her Boost Ball, she rocketed away as her parents fired several scarlet energy blasts her way. She managed to evade their fire, but the blasts of energy created explosions that were twice as large as the detonations of Super Missiles, which were easily capable of destroying Federation main battle tanks. However, Ridley soon got a piece of the action as he soared into the air and bombarded Samus with a stream of plasma. His attack scored a direct hit on Samus and she lost a third of her Energy Tank. The Power Bomb she dropped eventually exploded, engulfing her parents in a sphere of destructive energy, and she accelerated around the room until she had activated her Speed Booster. Once her Speed Booster was active, she came to a stop for a brief moment and then Shinesparked up through the ceiling, breaking through the rock and continuing up the mountain. As she did so, she checked her parents shield and life bars, noticing that the Power Bomb that she had dropped inflicted noticeable damage to her parents' shields, their shields being taken down to five sixths their original strength. Still, their life bars were unchanged, indicating that none of the energy managed to bleed through and damage their armor in any way.

Eventually, she reached the top of the mountain and stopped. She uncurled herself and proceeded to make her way towards the hole. As she did so, though, she quickly found that the ground beneath her was giving way. Spin jumping into the air and activating her Screw Attack, a stream of pulsating energy came up from underneath her and buffeted her Screw Attack shields. Despite the fact that her Screw Attack shields were up and resisting the energy, the energy attack was so powerful that a far too large amount of energy managed to bleed through the shields and inflict damage to her suit as she lost an entire Energy Tank to the attack, despite her Screw Attack shields. She suspected that if she had not had the Screw Attack active, that she may very well have been killed, for the energy blast that struck her was powerful enough to destroy a city. It was even stronger than Mother Brain's Hyper Beam attack during her last mission on Zebes. Eventually, the stream of energy ceased, the energy that her Screw Attack had deflected around her had continued up to the mountain's ceiling, blasting through, and continuing on into outer space, where it eventually dispersed. Light shown from the new hole that had been created by the energy stream as several boulders fell to the ground, throwing up rocks and debris upon impact.

Samus dropped another Power Bomb over the hole, transforming into her Morph Ball form for a brief moment to drop the bomb, before returning to her normal form and rocketed away from the hole as quickly as her Screw Attack spin jump would allow, as her mother came shooting up from underneath her. The Power Bomb exploded and inflicted more damage to her mother's shield, but the blast did not slow down Virginia's charge and she quickly escaped the blast sphere before suffering too much shield damage. Once she arrived, she stretched out her arms towards her daughter and fired several pulsing red balls of energy towards her. The balls struck Samus's Screw Attack shields but failed to breach them, or inflict any damage. However, they did push the bounty hunter backwards a bit. She was soon joined by her husband, who was now holding a staff in his right hand, the end of the staff glowing a deep red. He pointed the staff at Samus and fired a series of blood-red energy blasts from the end of the staff. The blasts of energy were deflected by Samus's Screw Attack shield, with some of them being deflected into the ground, throwing up large piles of dirt and dust.

Samus then charged towards her father in an attempt to ram him and hope that her Screw Attack was capable of inflicting damage to his shields as well. Rodney made no attempt to evade his daughter's charge and merely hovered there as she collided with him. Much to Samus's surprise, her Screw Attack was able to inflict damage to the shields of her father's armored suit. In fact, it was inflicting a noticeable amount of damage to his shields. For a fleeting moment, she hoped that her father was beginning to resurface and was keeping himself from being able to fight her. However, that hope vanished as she noticed that his energy projectors were glowing a bright red, signaling the preparation of an attack. Allowing herself to fall to the ground, Samus barely managed to avoid sustaining a point blank attack from the large energy wave released by her father. The scarlet blast sailed over her as it continued to the wall and blasted a significant hole in it. He then swept the beam down towards Samus, creating a massive rend in the floor as he followed his daughter's movements in an attempt to hit her with the energy wave.

The energy wave eventually ceased, but that did not stop Rodney and Virginia Aran from continuing to attack their daughter. Rodney drew out what looked to be two throwing daggers, but she suspected that there was more to them than that. She was quickly proven right as he threw them at her and they followed her every move as she evaded their initial attempt to hit her. While she was busy evading the daggers, her mother was bombarding her with some "mid-level" energy blasts. While she managed to evade most of the blasts, some of them still managed to hit her, each draining fifty units of energy from her Energy Tank. In addition, with each hit she sustained, she was staggered for a bit, allowing the two tracking daggers to strike her suit and inflict additional damage. By the end of the barrage, she was down to seventeen Energy Tanks, with her current Energy Tank already having lost thirty units of energy, while having only inflicted relatively light damage to her parents' shields. And given how this battle was going, so far, if things did not change, she would almost certainly lose. The problem was how she could launch an attack on them without getting annihilated? Her parents were too fast for her to simply be able to stand, or even simply run around and focus on them while preparing a Power Missile. Besides, chances were that if they saw the missile coming, they would either be able to evade it, or knock it back at her, which could be disastrous for her since it was as powerful as a tactical nuke. Still, it was likely her best bet at being able to breach their shields and hopefully allow her to inflict some real damage to them.

A plan then came to mind. She began by charging around the room as her parents continued to toss energy blasts and energized tracking throwing daggers her way. As they continued to rain down attacks on her, she fired her Wave Beam at the seeker daggers and shot them out of the air. She rushed over and picked up one of the daggers and attached it to her suit before finally running fast enough to activate her Speed Booster. Once she activated her Speed Booster, afterimages appeared behind her and a large blast sounded as she went faster than the speed of sound. Stopping for a second, and drawing the dagger, she Shinesparked towards her mother. She collided with her and the force of the Shinespark carried the two of them to the ceiling, where they crashed. Samus suffered no damage from the collision, but she noticed her mother's shield level drop due to the impact, along with her life bar decreasing by a single sliver. Virginia was dazed by the impact for a moment before regaining her senses and taking the opportunity to focus the energy of her projectors and cannons on Samus just as she curled into her Morph Ball form and dropped a Power Bomb. As she uncurled herself and activated her Screw Attack, her father appeared next to her and brought his staff upon her. Despite hitting her with the bladed end of the staff, her Screw Attack did not suffer any shield damage. The force of the strike, though, was enough to send her crashing to the ground. This proved to be most fortuitous, though, because it got her out of the path of Virginia's energy barrage. The scarlet streams of energy erupted from her energy projectors and cannons and blazed a path to the far wall of the cavern. The energy stream instantly blew a hole in the wall, vaporizing the rock and continued on into outer space, eventually colliding with an unfortunate Galactic Federation Assault Transport that was making an attack run of a Federation in Exile corvette and destroying it.

As she was firing her energy stream, the Power Bomb exploded and engulfed the two Techno Lords in a field of fiery destruction that was thirty meters in diameter. Part of the ceiling of the cavern was even vaporized by the blast of the Power Bomb. Samus noticed the shields of her parents fall to below half strength. Seeing this as her chance to inflict some real damage to their shields, she locked onto her father and armed a Power Missile. Taking a deep breath and ironically praying that the Power Missile would be powerful enough to inflict shield damage to her parents, but not so powerful that it risked killing them, she fired the red-tipped warhead at them. The missile burst from the arm cannon and flew straight at the Techno Lords. Despite seeing the missile coming, Rodney made no attempt to evade it. Even Virginia merely hovered close by, as if waiting for the missile to strike and hope that it inflicted some damage to them. The missile struck Rodney Aran and detonated in a massive explosion of fire. Samus jumped into her Screw Attack so as to protect herself from the detonation. The entire cavern was filled by the blast and the walls and floor gave way beneath her, along with the ceiling being blown out and the cavern being exposed to the air outside. Light now shined down on the combatants as the explosion dissipated and the Techno Lords appeared from the epicenter of the blast, their armor smoking but otherwise, seemed to be unharmed.

Samus soon landed on what was left of the floor, a small ledge around what used to be the walls of the cavern, with the right wall being exposed to the air, and the left wall opening into another chamber. Checking her data, she found that the Power Missile had taken their shields down to less than one-tenth their original strength, but their life bar was unchanged. Remembering her battle with the Techno Squire, she figured that her parents would be able to survive a direct hit from a Power Missile if she could get them close together without killing them, but she hoped that she would not have to put that theory to the test. She intended to exhaust all other options before resorting to using what amounted to a tactical nuclear weapon against an unshielded opponent.

Her parents quickly recovered from the attack and took the offensive once more. Powering her energy projectors, Virginia unleashed an endless barrage of relatively "low power" scarlet pulsing energy blasts, each one strong enough to blast a hole into the floor below. Samus entered her Screw Attack mode and spin jumped through the air as her mother relentlessly pounded her with an endless barrage of energy blasts. Those that were not deflected by her Screw Attack shields blew holes into the floor that were several meters in diameter. The next floor below her was beginning to crumble due to the weight of the energy fire. She knew that if any of those blasts managed to hit her with merely her normal shields in play, that she would be killed very quickly. She then ascended towards her mother in the hopes of colliding with her so as to drain more energy from her shields, and finally collapse them. Her father had other plans, though, as he tossed more seeker daggers her way. The daggers bounced off of her Screw Attack shield, but that did not deter him. He then charged her, producing a shield from a device on his arm and he rammed her, sending her flying. The strike did not inflict damage, but the shock did knock her out of her Screw Attack, which left her vulnerable to her mother's energy attack barrage. The ensuing volley of low powered energy pulses scored direct hits on her and sent her flying. Each hit staggered her and sent her sailing through the air, and crashing to the ground, where she rolled to a stop. By the time she recovered and spin jumped into another Screw Attack, she had lost two more Energy Tanks.

The barrage of energy attacks came to an end when she Screw Attacked once more. This prompted her father to take charge of the fight, with Virginia hanging back to cover him. He then charged towards Samus, his staff in hand, and brought one of the blade ends of his staff down on her. However, she was ready for the attack this time, and let the attack strike her, knocking her down a bit, but not stunning her and knocking her out of her somersault. She then rocketed back towards her father and barreled into him, inflicting more damage to his shields. As she did so, though, he powered his chest energy projectors and opened fire on her. Much like with her mother's attack, her Screw Attack was unable to deflect the entire attack, but it _was_ able to deflect and block most of the attack. By the time the energy assault ceased, she had lost one whole Energy Tank in the attack. Despite having fourteen Energy Tanks remaining, she knew that she could not afford to take many more hits like that. After all, she also had Ridley to deal with, who had no interest in getting between the two sides at the moment, for fear of having a stray blast inflict damage to him. After she recovered from the attack, a quick glance told her that her father only had a sliver of shields left on his suit. Another Screw Attack strike might be enough to collapse them. However, she would have to get past her mother, first.

Virginia came to her husband's aid and drew her sword, pointing it down at Samus, along with deploying her energy cannons, targeting her daughter. A vicious stream of energy was released from the sword and energy cannons. Samus methodically jumped into another Screw Attack in order to avoid taking damage, as was the routine this entire fight. The energy blasts glanced off of her Screw Attack shields and she proceeded to propel herself towards her mother. Virginia merely rose a little higher into the air, and allowed her daughter to sail underneath of her, her sword beginning to glow red. As Samus sailed beneath her mother, Virginia thrust her sword downward towards her daughter. The sword struck the Screw Attack shield, but it did not inflict any damage to Samus. She strained against the defenses of her daughter as she tried to breach the shield, but was unable to do so.

Seeing this as her only chance to collapse her mother's remaining shields, Samus allowed herself to take the hit by curling into her Morph Ball mode for an instant in order to drop a Power Bomb. As the bomb was dropped, the sword was thrust into her Morph Ball form and she was shot downwards to the ground, breaking through the floor and into the chamber below. She uncurled herself and flipped, landing gracefully on her feet, losing only half an Energy Tank to the attack. The Power Bomb detonated as soon as she was propelled downward by the sword strike, allowing her to escape the blast. The blast engulfed her mother in its vaporization field, forcing Rodney to retreat from the blast. Checking her mother's shield bar, the bounty hunter saw that her armored suit's shields had been depleted by the blast, and the energy siphoning system had sustained damage as well. Meanwhile, Rodney soon descended to the level that Samus was on and rocketed towards her, plowing through stalagmites on his way to reach her. He drew out his staff and thrust it towards her, its edge glowing a deep red.

Before she could initiate her Screw Attack, she took the full brunt of the attack, taking out the remainder of her current Energy Tank, and sending her flying backwards. He continued to charge towards her, but this only prompted her to grin. She flipped and landed on her feet, skidding backwards as he rushed forward using his dash jet system. She sidestepped her father's attack and flicked her wrist towards him. The purple beam that emerged from her Grapple Beam system connected to her father and the beam turned blue as she started to drain his shields of their remaining energy. His shield bar decreased and soon was completely drained, but she did not stop there. She continued to siphon energy away from his shields and use them to replenish her own. As she did so, her father merely drew his staff, but did not power it at all, which surprised her. She continued to drain him of his energy as he thrust his staff towards her, forcing her to dodge his repeated attacks, but he still did not use his energy projectors, shoot an energy bolt or volley of bolts from the staff, or even create a power field around the blade. It was as if the weapons systems were completely offline while she drained his suit of its energy. She could see his life bar flashing, but it was not decreasing, which meant that there was no system damage being inflicted and that all she was doing was draining energy from whatever powered his armored suit. Still, she decided to milk this energy drain for all it was worth, for she wanted to have as much energy as possible for when she went to fight Ridley.

She was forced to disconnect her Grapple Voltage beam from her father when a beam sword slashed the energy beam that was siphoning power from her father's suit. Standing before her was her mother. As soon as the beam's connection was cut, her father rocketed into the air, his life bar no longer flashing, but also showing no signs of having taken any damage. Checking her suit's readings, she currently had restored three Energy Tanks, bringing her total up to sixteen. She had hoped to be able to draw away more energy from her father's suit of armor than that, but it would have to do. And it was better than nothing. Checking on her other systems, she found that she had all two hundred and fifty of her missiles remaining, along with nine Power Missiles, and six Power Bombs. With her mother's energy siphoning system having been damaged, and both her parents having lost their shields, she was hopeful that an attack with her Wavebuster when her parents went to attack her. If that was not successful, then she would have to risk everything with her Power Bombs and/or Power Missile.

She charged her Wave Beam, continuously moving so as to prevent her parents from getting an accurate bead on her since they were refraining from using their energy projectors, likely believing that they would be vulnerable to attack at the instant they prepared to unleash their attack. She also considered the possibility that they might have been going easy on her, the original personalities of her parents still putting up some resistance against the new personalities that had been installed into her parents' bodies. Still, she knew that she had to do something fast, for if her parents _were_ still resisting, and that was the reason they simply did not constantly use their energy projectors against her, despite the fact that the energy waves launched from them could still inflict damage on her when she was using her Screw Attack. As soon as the blast was charged, she rushed towards her parents, targeting her mother first, since her mother was still on the ground, thus closer, a ranged specialist and she wanted to neutralize her threat before facing down her father, who was stronger in close range combat.

She continued to go evasive until her mother prepared to launch a wave of energy from her chest energy projectors. Seeing this as her opportunity, she closed the distance between her and her mother, her father merely watching to see her strategy, and she focused on the energy projectors at the exclusion of all else. She knew it was risky to do so, but if she was going to exploit the only potential weakness of her mother's armor suit, she would have to do so now, and pray that her parents were not luring her into a trap. The projectors began to glow and electricity arced around several of them, their protective fields about to collapse and allow her mother to release her energy. The moment her mother fired, Samus dodged the expanding cone of energy to the left and lightning erupted from her cannon and arced towards her mother. The stream of lightning hit her directly in the chest, scoring a direct hit on one of her energy projectors, and electricity began to arc across her body. Checking her readouts, though, she found that her mother's life bar was not fluctuating at all and she was not suffering any damage to her suit. After a few seconds, she ceased the stream of lightning and continued to go evasive so as to avoid the remainder of her mother's attack. She soon saw several energized seeker daggers coming her way, forcing her to shoot them out of the sky before they found their mark and inflicted more damage to her suit.

As soon as she had avoided the last volley of attacks, she grimaced. Her only option now was to use either her Power Bombs or her Power Missiles and hope that they were powerful enough to damage her parents' armor, but not so strong that they outright killed them. Remembering her battle with the Techno Squire onboard Orbital Ring Eight, she knew that the Power Missile was strong enough to destroy the armor of a Techno Squire, whose armor was weaker than that of a Techno Knight's. Thinking back to that battle, she felt that it would be safe to use a Power Missile on her parents. She was beginning to hope that it would be powerful enough to inflict enough damage so that other weapons would become viable against their armor.

She went forward with her current plan by targeting her mother, but her father had other plans as he charged forward, an energy shield glowing on his left arm as he held a beam sword in his right hand. As she sidestepped him, she performed a spinning back heel kick, which while inflicting no damage to the Techno Lord, sent him careening towards her mother. While he was still sailing through the air and attempting to reverse his momentum, she locked onto the beam sword with her Grapple Lasso and tugged on it, pulling the energy sword out of his hand, the blade disappearing as it left his grip, and the hilt flying through the air until it clattered on the ground close to Samus just as he collided with his wife. She rushed over and grabbed the hilt, attaching it to her waist as she shifted her target from her mother, to her father, since _he_ was now the closer combatant. Upon targeting her father, she readied her Power Missile, placing her ring finger in the secondary missile launcher slot. As she did so, her arm cannon opened and a ruby-red tipped warhead appeared in her cannon. Zeroing in on her father, she said a silent prayer that this would work, and that it he would emerge from this attack alive, and she fired the missile. The missile erupted from her arm cannon and rocketed towards her father. After firing the missile, she immediately Screw Attacked up to the now collapsed ceiling to wait out the blast. The missile struck her father and detonated.

Much as before, the detonation engulfed her parents and caused tremendous damage to the surrounding area, destroying the floor beneath her parents. Her parents fell through the new hole to the level below. There, they hit the ground, producing depressions in the rock below, sending up jagged rock shards and other debris. Samus checked her HUD and found that about three quarters of each of their life bars had been depleted by the missile. In addition, their armor's integrity had been compromised, indicating that they were now vulnerable to damage via more conventional weaponry. They emerged from the small depressions as Samus jumped down to face them once more. This time, she drew the cylindrical hilt and igniting her beam sword, a scarlet energy blade springing into existence. Her parents slowly rose from the ground, their armor showing numerous sparking cracks and glowing red furrows. Despite the external damage to their armor, though, they were still able to fight at full strength, which they demonstrated as they charged towards Samus, their sword and staff drawn respectively. They arrived at Samus, but the enhanced bounty hunter was too quick for them and she dodged the initial slash from her mother and sidestepped the attempted stab by her father, all the while slashing her parents' armor with her newly acquired beam sword. New furrows appeared in her parents' armor as their armor's integrity decreased even further.

Deactivating the blade and attaching it to her waist, she turned around to face her parents, and charged her Wave Beam. She intended to give her Wavebuster another try. Once the beam was charged, she unleashed a second stream of lightning at the now compromised armored suit of her father. Lightning arced across his armor and the indicators on her HUD told her that she was inflicting significant system damage to her father's armored suit. The energy projectors on his chest burst in a bright flash of scarlet light, and Samus's HUD indicated that the systems and armor integrity were now down to critical levels. She cut off the lightning, having fired on him for only three seconds. Once the lightning from the Wavebuster stopped, her father was violently hurled backwards towards the initial hole that had been produced by Virginia's initial energy blast. He struck the ground and skidded to the hole, falling over the edge and to the first level of the Space Pirate Mount Coronet base. There, he struck the ground, his armor sparking, with pieces of it beginning to fall off. Samus's sensors indicated that the suit was no longer functioning, but that her father was still alive, and seemingly unharmed.

She then faced her mother and locked onto her as her mother prepared to unleash another wave of energy towards her. Before she had the opportunity to launcher her attack, Samus charged her Wave Beam once more and unleashed another Wavebuster lightning stream towards her. The stream of lightning arced from her cannon to the damaged Techno Lord and scored a direct hit on the energy projectors before they could build up the necessary energy to fire on Samus. Electricity arced across Virginia's suit of armor and Samus read that her mother's systems were shorting out. Much like her husband, the chest energy projectors of Virginia Aran erupted in a bright flash of scarlet light and some of the energy that was arcing across her armor was now scarlet. Samus cut the stream of lightning from her Wavebuster and her mother was violently thrown back towards the hole. She did not even hit the ground before falling through the hole, and down to the first level of the mountain base, eventually crashing into the ground right next to her husband.

Samus followed her down to the first floor, falling through the holes and eventually landing next to her parents, who were still clad in their Techno Lord armor, but instead of looking formidable and shiny, it was chipped, and burned in numerous sections. Electricity still sparked from numerous breaches, and the helmets of both of her parents appeared to have been dented, though her scans indicated that neither of her parents had suffered any head injuries. As she went over to them they struggled to stand, but seemed to be unable to do so. Their armor soon transformed into pulsing fields of scarlet energy and promptly vanished from their bodies, revealing their still immaculate K-2L uniforms. One thing that Samus was quick to notice, though, was the fact that their weapons, particularly their sword and staff, did not disappear with the armor. As she approached, she noticed two mechanical worms crawl out from underneath them. Switching to her Plasma Beam, she destroyed the spiders with single shots from her arm cannon. It was finally over. She had defeated her parents without having to kill them.

She soon went over to check on them to make sure that they were okay. While her sensors indicated that they were unhurt, she did not want to take any chances with their safety. As she approached, however, she noticed Ridley's name appear on her HUD once more, his name appearing in bold, along with his health bar. This prompted Samus to turn and face him as he unleashed a stream of plasma towards her parents. Unwilling to let her nemesis spoil her victory she stood between herself and the dragon as he unleashed his plasma assault. The stream of fire struck her suit and scored a direct hit on her chest. Her suit's shields were buffeted by the plasma stream and wisps of fire were deflected to her sides, and around her parents. She held out her arms in order to make sure that her shields absorbed the entire strike and that the flames that were deflected did not strike her parents. She was very willing to sacrifice an Energy Tank to ensure the safety of her parents. As Ridley was finishing his attack, she switched to her Wave Beam so she could take down the shields of his armor with her Wavebuster and allow herself an opening to disable his plasma. However, just as she was going to unleash her assault on Ridley, she felt a thump to the back of her head. She noticed that another Energy Tank had vanished just after Ridley had ceased his attack. She turned and found her parents standing before her with blank expressions on their faces. They had their sword and staff in hand respectively with each pointed at her. A look of shock crossed her face as she gasped, "Mother, Father, what are you doing?"

"Following their programming," Ridley explained from behind, laughing at his nemesis. "You may have destroyed their armored suits and the robot spiders that were directly controlling their actions, but you did _not_ neutralize the brainwashing and other programming that was done to them before we resorted to the use of spiders." He neared her as she turned and saw them level their weapons at her again. The movement of their body was slow and jerky, though, as if there was a part of each of her parents that was still fighting to regain control of their bodies. Still, they were unable to keep their bodies from drawing an accurate bead on Samus. She did not want to move out of the way to avoid their next strike, for that would open _them_ to an attack by Ridley. And she knew deep down, Ridley wanted nothing more than to kill her parents again and force her to watch as they died. She had to do something quickly.

To that end, she charged her Wave Beam once more and unleashed a stream of lightning from her Wavebuster, knowing full well that she would sustain another attack from their weapons from behind. Another thump hit her in the back and she witnessed another Energy Tank vanish. Still, she had accomplished her short-term objective. With Ridley now taking damage from her Wavebuster, he would be forced to focus on fighting her, rather than murdering her parents, and she could use this opportunity to draw him away from them. She dashed to her right, being careful to maintain the connection between her Wavebuster and the Space Dragon as both of her parents fired another shot, each, from their sword and staff. The two energy attacks struck Ridley squarely in the chest and greatly assisted Samus in depleting the shields of Ridley's suit of armor. Within a couple of seconds, Ridley's shields were breached and Samus was inflicting direct damage to the beast and his suit of armor, her parents now standing motionless, as if they were organic statues.

With his shields gone, Samus switched to her Ice Beam and charged it, a large, blue ball of ice forming at the end of her arm cannon. Remembering his battle with Samus on Z-1A, Ridley took to the sky and prepared to unleash a glob of plasma on her. Plasma leaked from the corners of his mouth as he prepared to launch his attack. Samus, her Ice Beam fully charged and ready to attack, unleashed an Ice Spreader shot towards Ridley just as he had fully charged his plasma attack and released it on her. The two blasts of elemental energy collided with one another and they were stopped in midair. The plasma ball that Ridley had spit towards Samus was dissipating, but it was also managing to shrink the wave of ice that was headed Ridley's way. Eventually, though, the ice wave overpowered the plasma blast and continued towards him, albeit at significantly reduced strength. That did not stop Samus, though, from charging her Ice Beam again. As her weakened Ice Spreader blast hit the massive Space Dragon, he recoiled from the blast and was knocked back a few steps, roaring in anger as he suddenly felt a freezing sensation come over his body, despite the armor. Samus charged towards him as he was roaring and unleashed her Charged Ice Shot directly into his mouth.

"Watch out, Lord Ridley!" she heard the voice of her mother cry as her Ice Shot was about to strike his mouth. He turned towards the sound of the warning, but only managed to turn directly into Samus's Charged Ice Shot, the icy ball of freezing energy entering his mouth, which promptly closed in a vain attempt to prevent the ball from entering his mouth and potentially neutralizing his internal plasma engine. The ball of ice exploded in Ridley's mouth and a bluish aura appeared to surround his head. Samus did not let up on him, though. She charged another Ice Beam blast and fired at the dragon, this time, striking him in the chest. The dragon was knocked back and roared as the ice expanded to encompass his chest and part of his legs for a moment, rendering him immobile. Checking her HUD, she saw that she had inflicted noticeable damage to her nemesis.

Taking advantage of Ridley's immobility, Samus turned her focus to her parents. As she turned to face them, they were once again leveling their weapons towards her. She ran away from Ridley, so as to draw them away from him for when he thawed, which would be soon, and turned back, taking a few wild shots with her Ice Beam to get their attention and to make sure that they pursued her.

Once she felt that she was a safe distance away, she switched to her Wave Beam and waited for her parents to come to her. She locked onto her father first and then fired a single uncharged pulse. The trio of small, undulating, purple pulses emerged from her cannon and almost instantly struck her father. As they hit, electricity arced across his body and he gave a grunt as he writhed and convulsed as fell to his knees, and then to the ground, stunned. She then turned to focus on her mother, who was pointing her glowing sword at her. The sword unleashed a blast of energy, which Samus sidestepped, and allowed to pass her and strike the far wall of the cavern, blowing out a large portion of said wall. Her mother was slow to charge a second blast, which gave Samus ample time to lock onto her and fire a single shot of her uncharged Wave Beam. The beam hit her in the chest and electricity arced across her body, just as it had with her husband. She was silent as she writhed and convulsed before collapsing to the ground, stunned by otherwise unharmed.

To make sure that her parents were okay, she activated her Scan Visor and scanned each one individually, the scan for her father coming back, reading:

_Morphology – Human male. _

_Approximate age – 56 Earth years of age. _

_Identity – Rodney Aran. _

_Subject shows signs of having numerous cloned organs, in addition to undergoing healing and artificial regeneration therapy. However, the brain, spinal chord, and heart all show no signs of having been cloned or modified in any way. Subject also has signs of having previously undergone brainwashing and reprogramming as well as a transformation that allowed the use of a Techno Armored Suit of the Techno Lord class. All have since been neutralized and/or reversed, and the subject has returned to normal._

Samus beamed as she read that her father was now normal once more. She then scanned her mother, her scan coming up as:

_Morphology – Human female._

_Approximate age – 56 Earth years of age._

_Identity – Virginia Aran._

_Subject shows signs of having numerous cloned organs, in addition to undergoing healing and artificial regeneration therapy. However, the brain, spinal chord, and heart all show no signs of having been cloned or modified in any way. Subject has signs of having previously undergone brainwashing as well as a transformation that allowed the use of a Techno Armored Suit of the Techno Lord class. All have since been neutralized and/or reversed, and the subject has returned to normal._

Relief entered Samus's heart as she knew that her parents were now safe, for the moment. While she was loathe to leave them lying on the ground, she knew that she had to deal with Ridley before he recovered and became a threat not only to her, but to her parents as well. She rushed over to the last spot that she had seen Ridley, but when she arrived, she saw that her nemesis was no longer there. Fearing that he might be back with her parents, she looked back over at them, but she did not see them there either, and her sensors indicated that they were still alive and unharmed. She looked above and saw Ridley flying above her, all of the ice that had immobilized him earlier having disappeared. He looked down at her and grinned after glancing over at her fallen parents. Seeing them remain perfectly still, he, at first, believed them to be dead, but he soon doubted that Samus would be able to kill her own parents; not after everything she had been through after finding out that they were still alive. Still, he taunted, "I see that you finally found it in yourself to take out your parents. What was it like, inflicting the final blow to them?"

Samus gave no answer as she ran towards him, charging her Ice Beam. Ridley's eyes went wide with surprise and he grinned, thinking that Samus _had_, in fact, been forced to kill her parents so as to end their suffering as Space Pirate slaves. Ridley countered her charge with a thrust of his tail, combined with a barrage of fireballs. Samus jumped over his tail thrust and Screw Attacked into the fireballs, dispersing them. Ridley swore as she avoided taking damage from his attacks. She then uncurled herself and took aim at the Space Dragon's mouth, which was still open. She fired her Charged Ice Beam shot at the dragon, hitting him in the mouth. He recoiled in pain and shock, but he was far from finished.

After recovering from the attack, he charged towards Samus, preparing to release a stream of plasma at her, while she switched to her Power Beam so she could charge a Super Missile. Ridley arrived close to her and bent down. "Now you die, Hunter," he gloated as he opened his mouth to release a plasma blast at her. Instead, a wisp of bluish mist emerged from his mouth. "Aw sh…," he tried to swear, but was unable to finish before Samus force-fed him a Super Missile, grinning. The missile entered his mouth and exploded, inflicting significant damage to the beast. Ridley reared back and roared in agony as the missile inflicted internal damage to the beast. Not one to get complacent, Samus charged another Super Missile and targeted him once more. Again, she fired and a large, green-tipped warhead emerged from her arm cannon. The missile streaked towards Ridley and struck him in the lower jaw and exploded, inflicting even more damage than usual. The explosion forced the dragon to take a few steps backwards and he took to the air once more. It was time for him to get serious.

As Samus switched back to her Ice Beam so as to charge another Ice Spreader blast, Ridley deployed his armor's missile launchers. Two launchers appeared on his shoulders and unleashed two missiles towards Samus. She jumped into a Screw Attack and let the missiles hit her. They struck her shield and exploded, engulfing her in an explosion that was equal in power to that of a normal missile from her arm cannon, but inflicted no damage to her at all. She retaliated by launching her Ice Spreader blast as well as firing a Grapple Lasso at him. The Lasso connected to him and restrained him so that he could not evade her Ice Spreader blast.

The wave of ice reached his armor and scored a direct hit on his chest. The ice exploded from the center of the impact and spread around all of Ridley's body, encasing his armor in ice, his own internal plasma engine, which was still recovering from the Ice Beam that Samus had fed him, being the only thing keeping him from being frozen solid. Unfortunately, the heat from the engine could not heat the armor so when he fell to the ground, pieces of the armor broke off. When he crashed, he lost both of his missile launchers, as well as his bomb and Power Bomb dispensers. Eventually, he burst forth of the frozen armor, unleashing an ear-piercing roar in the process, and rocketed into the air. After he got close to the ceiling, he stopped his ascent and shook off the few pieces of remaining armor. Once he was rid of the armor, he commented, "Now _that's_ a bit more like it. Nothing to hold me back!" he exclaimed. The dragon then glared down at Samus and grinned. "And now, Hunter, we end this; once and for all!" he roared confidently.

Samus quickly scanned the area for her parents and found that they were safely on the other side of the cavern. She then grinned, reflecting Ridley's confident smile. He was right. It _would_ end here, once and for all. "Bring it on," she said with quiet confidence as she charged her Power Beam in preparation to launch a Super Missile. As soon as her Power Beam was charged, she locked onto the dragon and unleashed her missile. The missile streaked towards Ridley and hit him in the chest, detonating in a massive explosion. The explosion knocked him backwards several meters, but he quickly recovered to launch a plasma stream towards Samus. Samus jumped into a Screw Attack and let the stream of plasma wash over her, inflicting no damage. While she was still in the air, she charged her beam once more, maintaining her lock onto Ridley. She uncurled herself to fire another Super Missile and watched as the missile sailed into Ridley. The missile exploded, inflicting more damage to the beast, but upon glancing at her HUD, she saw that the Super Missile did not inflict a great deal of damage. Looking at her current missile totals, she saw that she was down to ninety missiles. At a cost of five missiles per Super Missile, she did not know if she had the firepower to take down the Space Dragon before running out of missiles. While her beam weapons were still effective against him when charged, she did not want to resort to weaker weaponry unless she absolutely had to.

She maintained her lock on Ridley as she fell to the ground, charging her Power Beam. As she did so, the massive dragon unleashed a volley of fireballs her way. Twisting and contorting herself, she managed to avoid the first volley, but the dragon quickly followed up with a second volley. This time, a couple of the fireballs managed to hit her, inflicting five units of damage per hit. She felt that she could withstand the fireballs if she could hit him with her Super Missiles. To that end, she fired another Super Missile at Ridley, hitting him in the lower jaw once more, inflicting more damage than her hits to his chest or other areas of his body. Still, glancing at Ridley's life bar, she knew that it would be close. And unless there were crates full of missiles lying around the area, she would be without missiles when clearing the rest of the mountain of Space Pirates. She did not dwell on that, at the moment, and instead, focused on her exchange with Ridley. She powered and fired another Super Missile at Ridley, but this time, he was ready. Whipping his tail at the missile, he swatted it out of the sky, sending it careening into the ground, where it exploded, producing a large crater, but no damage to the beast. He then grinned and unleashed a stream of plasma at Samus.

Catching the bounty hunter off guard, Samus took the full brunt of the attack. She lost almost half an Energy Tank to the assault. She quickly recovered, though, and charged her Power Beam once more. She made certain to close the distance between her and Ridley so that the dragon would not have the time to deflect the missile. She fired when she was a mere ten meters away. The missile erupted from her arm cannon and streaked towards Ridley too fast for him to be able to respond. It scored a direct hit on his chest and knocked him backwards and out of the air. Samus quickly followed up with another Super Missile before he could recover and knocked him further backwards with this missile. Checking his life bar, though, she found that she was not inflicting all that much damage on him, and quickly realized that she would run out of missiles before she managed to take him down.

Realizing that she had to throw caution to the wind if she wanted to beat Ridley, she decided to switch to her Wave Beam and use her Wavebuster on him. However, as she was charging her Wave Beam, Ridley spread his wings and charged towards her. She managed to avoid his initial charge, but his tail whip managed to catch her legs and knock her off her feet, causing her to discharge her Wave Beam blast. However, using her left hand, she managed to push off of the floor and land on her feet. The dragon then thrust his tail into her chest, inflicting more shield damage. He followed it up with a fireball barrage that took out the remaining energy of her current Energy Tank before she activated her Screw Attack and charged him in response. She charged her Wave Beam once more and fired on him, trying to ascertain just how much damage a Charged Wave Beam would be able to inflict. From that, she hoped to get an estimate of how much damage not only her Wavebuster would be able to inflict, but also how much damage her charged Plasma Beam would also inflict if she ran out of missiles during the battle, for she did not want to risk using Power Bombs or Power Missiles with her parents still within the same cavern and without their battle armor. Once her Wave Beam was charged, she fired on Ridley, the trio of purple undulating pulses erupting from her arm cannon and tracking the dragon as he backed off and attempted to evade the shot. His attempt was in vain as the Wave Beam still managed to score a hit on his chest, causing electricity to arc across his body.

After the beam hit Ridley, Samus checked her HUD to see the amount of damage inflicted by the shot, but she was less than impressed with the results. _It seems as if Ridley's been working out since we last fought_, she noted. From the results she found, she surmised that Ridley had done something to increase his resistance to electric attacks. She scanned him with her Scan Visor; her scan coming back, _Subject has used gene therapy to implant DNA from Dragon-type Pokémon of Earth into his body and incorporating it into his genetic structure, making him highly resistance to fire-based and electrical attacks_. This caused her to become concerned, since Ridley was now resistant two of her stronger beam weapons and Charge Combos, meaning that the only one he did not have a resistance to was the Ice Beam and the Ice Spreader. The problem was that the neither the Ice Beam, nor the Ice Spreader were all that fast for beam attacks, and if he was fast enough, he could evade the attack, causing her to waste her missiles. She mentally calculated the likely amount of damage that would be inflicted by her Ice Spreader and Ice Beam attacks and found that she would likely have just enough missiles to defeat him, or if she _did_ fall short, that her Ice Beam would allow her to finish him off.

She then switched to her Ice Beam and focused on Ridley once more, not wanting this fight to drag on for much longer. She charged her Ice Beam and locked onto Ridley. She then closed the distance between her and Ridley so that when she fired her Ice Spreader, she would be more likely to score a hit. She approached him and when she was close enough, she fired her Ice Spreader at him. Ridley tried to evade the attack, but the expanding wave of ice managed to catch him and score a direct hit on him. The ice blast detonated against his skin and spread from the center of his chest. He quickly closed his mouth so as to avoid having the ice spread down his throat and freeze his plasma engine. His engine could heat his body so as to defrost him if the ice encased him fully. Eventually, the spread of ice stopped, but his entire torso was frozen, along with his legs, and part of his wings. He was grounded, and his internal plasma engine was having a hard time defrosting him.

When Samus checked her HUD and saw the damage that her Ice Spreader inflicted, she was shocked, for Ridley appeared to take twice the damage he should have taken from just such an attack. She quickly took advantage of this and powered another Ice Spreader blast. She targeted the immobile dragon and fired once more. Ridley was not caught unawares, though, and powered as strong a stream of plasma as he could in order to try to weaken the blast before it hit him and inflicted more damage. He unleashed a cone of flame just as she launched her wave of ice towards him. As with the first clash, the two attacks clashed against each other in midair, with Samus's Ice Spreader pushing against Ridley's plasma stream. Eventually, Ridley's plasma engine was beginning to show signs of strain and his plasma stream was weakening. Samus's expanding wave of ice continued to surge towards Ridley and it eventually made contact. The greatly weakened wave of freezing energy struck Ridley and refroze various parts of him that were beginning to thaw. However, his head was still unfrozen, and his plasma engine was now working to defrost the rest of his body. This time, the Ice Spreader did not inflict all that much damage on Ridley. The bounty hunter felt that it was time to go back to her Super Missiles, since _they_ were not easy to shoot down for an immobile Ridley and she wanted to inflict as much damage on him as possible before he defrosted.

She began her assault by getting out of Ridley's line of fire and targeting his lower jaw. Since he was immobile, he was unable to avoid her attacks until he was fully defrosted. She then charged a Super Missile and fired it on Ridley's lower jaw, inflicting a great deal of damage to the beast. Despite the power of the explosion, though, the frozen area of the dragon did not shatter. She then powered and fired another Super Missile at him; this one also scoring a direct hit on the beast. Again, no part of him was shattered. Only a chunk of ice was blown off his chest, along with some of his flesh, a dark green burn appearing on his body. She then fired again, and again, and again, targeting the burned area of his body. She fired until she only had ten missiles remaining, enough to fire two more Super Missiles. Checking her HUD, though, it seemed as if the more she fired her missiles at Ridley, the less damage he sustained with each missile, for Ridley had at least a third of his health remaining. After the last missile exploded, the ice surrounding most of Ridley's body had been thawed and he spread his wings, breaking the rest of the ice and shaking it off. He then roared at the top of his lungs, zeroed in on Samus and brought forth a massive glob of plasma in his mouth. Seeing that he was powering another plasma attack, she knew that she had to do something quickly, but did not have the time to do so as he let loose the massive glob of plasma.

Samus dashed to the right and allowed the glob of plasma to splash against the floor and spread out, creating a small lake of fire. The lake melted the stones in the floor and smoke and steam rose from the ground. Ridley then curled his wings to himself and his normally purple skin pigmentation changed to black as he hardened his skin to become more resistant to damage. Samus knew that two Super Missiles would not nearly be enough to take him out in this state. She wondered what she could do, for she knew that all he would have to do is enter his hardened state again in order to become immune to her weaponry after she used up her last Super Missile. It was then that she remembered the Light Beam, and its Charge Combo, the Light Missile.

Seeing that she had nothing left to lose, she switched to her Light Beam, the lights on her arm cannon now glowing a bright yellow, as she charged her beam. Knowing that she would only get one shot at this, she locked onto the dragon as he prepared another blast of plasma. He unleashed the blast of plasma as she fired her Light Missile. The glowing missile erupted from her arm cannon and rocketed towards Ridley at blinding speed. Ridley jetted into the air to dodge the missile, but it performed a ninety-degree turn and zoomed after him. His eyes went wide with shock as the missile followed his every movement. The missile caught up to the dragon and detonated upon striking him at the base of his tail. His eyes went wide and he gave a horrible cry of agony as the missile detonated. The missile's explosion engulfed Ridley in a sphere of golden light and golden glow surrounded him even as the sphere dissipated, revealing that Ridley was now back to his usual purple pigmentation. The dragon fell out of the air and crashed into the ground, creating a small hole in the ground and throwing up rocks with his crash. Samus's eyes went wide as she saw his life bar decrease to the point where he only had a sliver of health left. _Stupid, stupid, stupid_! she berated herself. _You should have done this from the beginning_! While even she had expected the Light Missile to inflict _this_ kind of damage to the dragon, thinking back on things, it should not have surprised her, since it _was_ designed to inflict terrible damage to those that were evil, regardless of their strength or the defenses that they put up. She could not dwell on that now, though. Looking over at the fallen Space Dragon, she saw he was still alive, and struggling to rise. He was on his last legs, but she had just used the last of her missiles. It was all up to her beam weaponry now; and if he entered into his hardened state, and it could resist her Light Beam, then she was in trouble. Still, the Light Missile had inflicted obscene damage to the Space Dragon, and she had a feeling that the Light Beam would be able to deal damage to him as well, even _if_ he entered his hardened state.

This was put to the test as Ridley entered his hardened state once more, his skin becoming pitch black in color. Seeing that she had no other options, she charged her Light Beam and zeroed in on the Space Dragon. She fired her beam and a shotgun-like spray of golden pulses of light erupted from her cannon. The pulses scored direct hits on Ridley and forced him backwards a few feet, a sheen of light surrounding his body, but, checking his life bar, saw that they were not enough to inflict damage. She did notice the areas on his body where the Light Beam struck revert to his normal pigmentation. She took a chance and fired a series of uncharged blasts from her Light Beam at the exposed part of his flesh. The golden pulse of light struck the dragon and light flickered around the beast, but he did not sustain any damage. It seemed as if even with the Light Beam, only a Charged Shot would be powerful enough to inflict damage, regardless of if he was in his defensive state or not. Still, she was not out of options.

She unleashed her Charged Light Beam blast upon him once more, only this time, just as she fired her beam, she also flicked her left wrist and slung her Grapple Voltage beam at him. The purple beam erupted from her Grapple Beam attachment and connected with Ridley on his chest, on one of the patches of his flesh that had reverted to its gray color. Samus then proceeded to try and drain energy from Ridley, turning the beam blue. She noticed that her Energy Tanks were beginning to fill once more, but that Ridley's life bar was not continuing to decrease. In addition, he was not showing any signs of being in any pain, just the opposite. The dragon grinned and began to laugh, taunting, "You think that using your Grapple Voltage to drain energy from me is gonna be effective against me? All you're doing is draining the energy from my internal plasma engine. Your Grapple Voltage won't be able to drain my life energy. I don't go down that easily!"

Samus grimaced, but she still had one thing left to try. If draining Ridley of energy was not effective, then perhaps _sending_ some energy to him would be. She tested this theory by sending out a charge from her Grapple Voltage, turning the beam red, and beginning to send an electrical charge along the beam, one that inflicted damage despite his defenses and resistance to electricity. The Space Dragon writhed in agony as he began to convulse under the assault. "Damn," he swore. "How is she doing this?"

Samus gave no answer as she continued to force Ridley to endure the new electrical assault. Her plan was not without risk, though, and she kept a constant eye on her Energy Tanks, making sure that they did not get too low. She also knew that while her plan was successful in being able to inflict damage to Ridley, that he was still more resistant to electrical attacks than he had been in the past, so there was no guarantee that she would inflict fatal damage to him before her own Energy Tanks were drained to a critical level.

Ridley, however, would not go down without a fight. As he was writhing, he brought forth a glob of plasma into his mouth and unleashed it towards Samus. His hope was that she would either have to disengage the Grapple Voltage Beam in order to avoid the attack, or take it head on and suffer the consequences since he suspected that her attack was also draining her own Energy Tanks in the process. He merely hoped that he could score a hit or two on her and force her to cease her attack before she managed to take him out. He launched his plasma blob towards Samus, who jumped to the side in order to avoid a direct hit. The blob hit the floor of the cavern and exploded in a wave of fire. The explosion managed to hit Samus, draining thirty units of energy from her Energy Tanks, but inflicted no further damage.

Seeing that she could not afford to take many more hits like that, she switched to her Ice Beam and hoped that it would be sufficient to freeze his internal plasma engine for the duration of the fight if she could get an Ice Shot into his mouth. As she charged her beam, though, she was caught off guard as he quickly spread his wings and rocketed towards her. Seeing that she could use this to her advantage, she let hit her head on. The strike took off twenty units of energy, and sent her flying through the air. Her Grapple Voltage cut out on its own when she was stunned by the attack. She fell to the floor and slid across, and towards what looked to be a chasm. However, it was merely a basin for one of the underground lakes on this level. Still, the ridge above the lake made for a relatively long fall into the water. Ridley then jumped right on top of Samus and pinned her to the ground. Once he had her pinned, his face split into a grin. "What are ya gonna do now, Samus?" he asked as the rest of his body turned black and hardened itself once more, not realizing that this was part of Samus's plan.

Samus gave a confident smile as she saw Ridley prepare to unleash a plasma attack on her. Before doing so, though, he thrust his tail towards her head. As he did so, though, she charged her Power Beam, not wanting to give away her plan, and shot it before it could strike. The orange energy blast hit the tail and he roared in pain. Despite his increase in defense, his tail was still quite sensitive and, while she did not inflict any serious debilitating damage to the dragon, she _did_ inflict quite a bit of pain on him.

Keeping his tail behind him, so as to avoid taking another hit to his tail, he readied his plasma, which was already beginning to leak from his mouth. Samus steeled herself, for she knew that she would take a hit from this and likely lose half of one of her few remaining Energy Tanks on this plan that was not guaranteed to work. She merely hoped that the Charged Ice Beam would inflict enough internal damage to debilitate Ridley until his skin returned to its normal pigmentation and hardness on its own. As he readied himself to release his plasma, Samus switched to her Ice Beam and began to charge it, keeping her arm cannon on the ground and out of Ridley's field of view while she flicked her Grapple Voltage towards his head. He ducked the line and laughed, "Nice try."

He prepared to release his attack, and Samus her Ice Beam, when suddenly, his eyes went wide with pain. Reflexively, he unleashed his stream of plasma and missed Samus, overshooting her by a couple meters. She looked up at him and found a glowing staff edge protruding from the lower right portion of his abdomen. He went to whip his razor-sharp tail behind him when he felt another sharp pain to close to his rear. He roared in agony as he tried to whip his tail, only to find that it had been cut off. Just then, the tip of an energy-sheathed sword protruded from the upper left portion of Ridley's chest, close to where his heart would have been if he were human. Looking behind the dragon, she saw her parents, expressions of hatred towards the dragon etched on their faces as they twisted in order to inflict more internal damage to him. Ridley tried to turn and fire a blast of plasma when Samus joined in on the attacks and fired her Charged Ice Beam shot into his mouth. The blast of ice entered his mouth and exploded, freezing his internal plasma engine, disabling his ability to use his plasma and fire-based attacks, and restricting him to melee combat. His entire torso turned blue due to the Ice Beam's effects, despite the fact that the attack had damaged his internal organs and muscles.

"That was for those who didn't survive K-2L," Rodney Aran seethed as he partially withdrew the edge of his staff, and then merely pointed it upwards before thrusting it through again, the scarlet glowing edge of the blade emerging from his chest, close to his shoulder.

"And this is for making us try to kill our own daughter," Virginia echoed as she powered her sword, withdrew it from the beast and fired a powerful scarlet energy pulse. The pulse struck Ridley in the back, breaking through his hardened skin, returning the parts that were not already frozen to normal.

Samus then punched him hard in the chest, causing him to exhale forcefully, a few droplets of green blood issuing from his mouth. Just after she punched him, her father let loose an energy blast from the end of his staff while it was still inside Ridley. The pulse of energy emerged from the upper right portion of his chest, vaporizing it, and sending him staggering. Samus then grabbed the dragon by the neck and after standing back up, hurled him over her back and close to the edge of the drop off into the lake below. He hit the ground, headfirst, and skidded along the rocky bank until he stopped a few inches from the edge. He was breathing heavily as he struggled to rise. As he spread out his wings and charged towards his attackers, Samus switched to her Plasma Beam, not caring about his strength against plasma, charged it, activating the Spazer setting as well, and fired a Charged Spazer Plasma Beam at the stricken dragon. The blast spread out from her arm cannon and drilled numerous small holes and furrows into his body and wings, shredding his wings and making them useless for flight. The attack sent him staggering backwards.

Ridley fell to his hands and knees and struggled to remain standing. Battered, wounded, and broken, he gazed up at Samus as she charged her Plasma Beam once more, deactivating her Spazer setting and leveling her cannon at him. She then touched her left hand to her neck and her helmet disappeared, allowing the two hated enemies to look each other in the eyes. Their glares merely going to show just how much the two hated each other. She then pointed her arm cannon at the dragon, her expression unchanging. There was no satisfied smirk or grin on her face, merely a fierce determination to end the fight once and for all. Her parents soon came up to their daughter, pointing their weapons at the wounded dragon, the blades of the weapons glowing, ready to unleash more energy blasts on the Space Dragon.

Ridley chuckled to himself. _So this is how it will end_, he thought. _I'm going to die at the hands of the child I tried to kill so long ago on that accursed K-2L, as well as the parents of said child who had supposedly been killed in that raid, one of them by me in my attempt to kill Samus_. He then seethed. This was not how he was supposed to go out. He was supposed to die of old age, if such a thing were possible for his species. And if it was not, then he would proudly live until the end of the universe, and strive to find a way to survive outside of space and time, if he had to, and live forever. To be killed by a human was too ignominious an end for him to accept. He let forth a sigh and still felt an icy coldness emanating from his chest. It was likely that his plasma engine was still cold, if not frozen; and if it were still frozen, then there was the possibility that it could actually have sustained damage. Nevertheless, he tried to exhale a small bit of plasma or flame. All that came up was a cold, blue mist. He gave a sigh.

Looking up at the family that had leveled their weapons on him, he knew that he would die. But he would not go down without taking at least one of them with him. He spread his wings one last time and gave a roar. As he did so, he tried to leap forward towards Virginia, deciding that he would finish what he started all those years ago and finally kill her once and for all. However, before he could make his leap, Samus fired her Charged Plasma blast at him, striking him in chest, blowing a large hole through his body, taking out at least one lung, and possibly a portion of his heart as well. He was sent staggering backwards as Rodney and Virginia unleashed their own attacks on the dragon. The blasts of energy burned through the front of Ridley's chest, and out the back, drilling holes into his body and producing massive green burns along much of what was left of it as well. The force of the blasts sent him reeling backwards, stepping closer and closer to the edge of the cliff. Eventually, his foot could not find land and he fell over the edge. He gave a final roar as he fell, being silenced as he hit his head on a rock outcropping and continuing to fall, unconscious, until he hit the water below. Samus rushed to the edge so she could watch him sink. Upon hitting the water, Ridley floated on the surface for a bit, his body following a current in the water, before beginning to sink, bubbles rising to the surface as he was fully submerged. After a few moments, the bubbles stopped coming, but she saw his shadow move a bit to the right before it vanished. Samus put her helmet on and checked her HUD to see if Ridley was truly dead, and she saw his seemingly drained life bar appear. However, she noticed a single sliver of energy still appear on the bar, but it flickered, indicating that the wound inflicted was fatal and that he would not survive. After a few moments, Ridley's life bar disappeared from her visor. It was finally over.

Once the battle had finally concluded, Samus rushed over to her parents and hugged them fiercely, removing her Power Suit before embracing them, a smile splitting her face. Her parents looked her in the eye, and she in theirs. "You've grown, Samus," her father said. "You've become so strong."

"You've made us so proud," her mother said, beaming. Seeing the two together, it was easy for Rodney to see the resemblance that his wife and daughter shared.

The family continued their embrace for a few more moments before eventually disengaging. When they did so Virginia told Samus, "As much as I want this moment to continue, we cannot stay here forever. It won't be long before the remaining Space Pirates and Mother Brain learn what happened here. They'll begin their evacuation shortly."

"I know," Samus said in a melancholy tone as her Power Suit reappeared over her body.

Before she could say anything else, her father informer her, "Their command center is one level below. There is an elevator at the south end of the cavern. I know that it wasn't damaged in the fighting. There's also a recharge station near the base of the elevator. If you hurry, you should be able to recharge before the Space Pirates deactivate it."

Samus quickly turned around and went to the south. Before heading to the elevator, though, she told her parents, "Stay close to the base's exit, just incase things go wrong."

"We will," both of her parents assured her. When she went to head over to the elevator, they told her, "Good hunting, Samus."

She looked back at them and smiled. With that, she headed over to the elevator, which was camouflaged by the ground, but easy for her to spot with her Scan Visor. Once she arrived at the elevator, she stepped onto the lift and waited for a second until it descended below the surface, and took her into the basement of Mount Coronet.

Meanwhile, in another sector of the basement of the mountain, Space Pirate general, Weavel, made the final preparations for the only remaining warp capable evacuation transport. It had enough room to store all of the fifty-six surviving Space Pirates, plus Ridley and Mother Brain. He waited near the basin of an underwater lake that was fed from a lake a floor above. After he performed the final check on the transport, he exited its cockpit and exited the ship. As he exited the ship, he noticed several Space Pirates looking out into the lake. Going over to them, he asked, "What's going on? Why are you staring out into the center of the lake?" Just as he asked the question, he got his answer as the body of Ridley surfaced, his wings in tatters and his body pierced with several severe wounds, and many smaller burns. His eyes went wide with shock. "Fish him out!" Weavel cried as he went over to try to grab hold of Ridley's body. As he did so, he noticed the faint throbbing of blood through Ridley's veins. As he and two other Space Pirates pulled him out of the water, took out a scanner and scanned Ridley. The scans indicated that Ridley was still alive, but he was fading fast, having suffered a severe head injury, plus the loss of a lung, a kidney, and severe damage to both his liver and his heart. The general directed two Space Pirate Troopers, "Prepare a stasis chamber immediately! He's still alive!"

As they went to prepare the chamber for Ridley, he knelt down to his commander and told him, "Hang in there, Lord Ridley. We've got you." He then did his best to patch up Ridley's wounds as the other Pirates brought out the chamber, a round device with a clear-glass canopy that was barely large enough to hold Ridley, and that was only with his wings and tail folded in. Once it was brought out to Weavel, it was laid flat and opened. He and the others then lifted Ridley into the chamber and, once he was inside, closed it and hoped that he was not too far gone to be saved. With that, they took him onboard the transport and placed his pod inside the cargo bay.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20:

In the Space Pirate command center in the basement of Mount Coronet, Space Pirate High Command made their final preparations for the defense of Mother Brain. Space Pirate Troopers installed force fields and other barriers to protect the command center, and Mother Brain. They even removed the power core from the now destroyed Heavy Freighter and used it as an alternative power source for the force fields and other defenses that were being installed. In addition to the force fields, the troopers were installing automated defense turrets as quickly as possible, along with a few Vigilance-class turrets as well. Mother Brain watched from her stasis tank as the Space Pirate Troopers were hard at work. They were down thirteen hands, for High Command had given General Weavel the order to prepare the evacuation transport for departure since the base had already been compromised. Mother Brain had not approved of this action. She had a feeling that they had taken the rash action of fueling the sole remaining warp capable transport and preparing it for takeoff should Samus manage to overrun the command center. High Command had disagreed with her sentiments. They felt that even if they _did_ manage to defeat Samus Aran in a battle, that the Galactic Federation, Galactic Federation in Exile, or Earth's military, itself, would send a force to deal with them; and given the reports that were coming in, chances were that if Earth attacked, that the Space Pirates would quickly be overrun. The problem, that Mother Brain saw, was the fact that the transport was located on the other side of a small underground lake, with only a single bridge giving quick access to the ship. In addition, it was far enough away so that it would take at least a few minutes to walk to it. One way or the other, she and the other Pirates of High Command would have to take a stand against Samus, assuming that either Ridley, or her parents, did not kill her first. Still, regardless of Samus's fate, they were going to evacuate anyway.

While the other Pirates were setting up the defenses, the members of High Command sat in the command center's tactical chamber, looking over the reports and the map of the base that appeared on the various computer screens. They noted that there was severe damage to the upper levels of the base and that the technology had likely either been destroyed or heavily damaged. In a few short hours, the Space Pirates had gone from having a working base, all the way to having to scrap for survival and hope that the Federation ships did not shoot them down when they fled the base. They checked the automated life force scanners and radio transmitters of Ridley and the two Techno Lords and saw that the transmitters and scanners had gone dark for the two Techno Lords. Since the transmitters had been installed on the robotic spiders that were used to control the Lords, they did not know whether this was the result of the two human slaves dying in battle, or Samus managing to free them of their control, but regardless, they had lost the two Techno Lords. Ridley's scanners were sending back conflicting readings. His life force sensors indicated that he was hanging on by the thinnest of threads, while his radio transmitter had gone completely silent. Opening a channel to Ridley, one of the Commanders blurted, "Ridley. Ridley, do you copy?"

They waited at the station for a response, which came quickly. "This is General Weavel," the voice over the radio answered. "Ridley has been grievously wounded in battle and has been taken onboard the transport. He was in critical condition and is not expected to survive without first-class medical aid. To try to stave off his potential death, we have placed him in a stasis chamber until we can get some medics over to try to see him. How goes the rest of the defense?"

"We're managing, for now," the Commander responded. "Can you spare any of your troops?"

"Yes, sir," Weavel answered. "I can spare all of them if you need me to."

"Send them over immediately," the High Commander ordered. "We'll need them for the defense since it seems like Samus will soon be coming for us."

"Understood, sir," Weavel replied.

With that, the channel was closed. Now all the Pirates of High Command could do was wait for the Hunter to arrive, and hope that center's defenses, the fifty-five Pirates defending Pirates, and Mother Brain would be enough to destroy Samus. If it was not, then the legacy of the Space Pirates would end in the basement of this alien mountain.

Samus rode the elevator down to the basement level of the mountain, watching gray lines pass as she continued to descend further into the subterranean passages of the mountain. Looking at the metal walls, she suspected that these passages had been excavated by the Space Pirates. She checked her status and saw that she only had four Energy Tanks remaining, along with no missiles, six Power Bombs, and eight Power Missiles. The battle against her parents and Ridley had significantly drained her resources.

Eventually, the elevator reached the basement floor and came to a halt, its hum coming to a stop upon reaching the bottom. Sure enough, just as her parents had said, there was a recharge station close to the elevator. By the appearance of the lights, it still seemed to be fully functional. Stepping off the elevator, she looked around. The cavern was incredibly spacious, with a large amount of room for fighting, and even for flight, should there be any Space Pirate Aerotroopers. After she had looked around for a bit, she made her way to the station. Activating her Scan Visor, she scanned the recharge station, just to make sure that it was not a trap. It was not. She then stepped into the station and a wall of energy erupted from the floor, to the overhead roof of the station. She felt a refreshing sensation wash over her as her Energy Tanks, Missile Tanks, Power Bomb Tanks, and even her Power Missile Tank was refilled. After a few seconds, she was fully reenergized and rearmed. After she was fully recharged and rearmed, she exited the station and followed her map to the Space Pirate command center, and her expected battle with Mother Brain.

Not too far away from Samus, Space Pirate High Command watched the screens from inside their command center for any signs of the bounty hunter. The High Commanders, however, were not all that thrilled with the prospect of having to fight Samus, though, and were weighing the potential benefits and liabilities of doing so.

"She's all alone down here, and we outnumber her over fifty-to-one," one of the High Commanders shouted to the rest as they were arguing among themselves as to the plan of attack.

"And has shown that that doesn't matter at all," another High Commander retorted. "Need I tell you what she did to our comrades a few floors up?"

"It won't be the same, this time," the first Commander insisted. "We have Mother Brain!"

"You speak as if Mother Brain will be the deciding factor in this fight," another High Commander commented. "You sound like one of her cheerleaders," he scoffed.

"And _you_ should be more respectful towards our strongest weapon," the first High Commander retorted.

"Why should we not be concerned?" another asked. "We have been unable to complete Mother Brain's android body, which means that she won't have the added power of the zero point battery we managed to steal from the N'Kren convoy we raided shortly before the Battle of Urtraghus."

Before the argument could drag on, though, one of the Space Pirate Troopers manning the sensor console spotted Samus on the screen emerging from the recharge station and blurted, "The Hunter has arrived! The Hunter has arrived! She's coming!"

"She's here!" another Pirate corrected as he saw Samus charging towards the first line of the Space Pirate defenses.

The rest of Pirate High Command looked over at the Pirate Troopers who were manning the consoles and saw Samus coming. She had come sooner than expected. "Alert Mother Brain and tell her to prepare for combat. The rest of you, get to your security posts. Squad One, you're to begin the evacuation of the base, immediately. Leave everything behind that we can afford to lose. Make sure, however, that you get the backup copy of Mother Brain's personality and her knowledge. In addition, take the DNA samples of Kraid and Ridley to the transport. We need to ensure that we manage to save them, so we can clone Kraid, and possibly Ridley as well, just in case," he added softly. "Also, tell Weavel that we can use his help in the evacuation as well. The rest of us will try to stop Samus, along with Mother Brain."

"Understood, sir," the Pirate Trooper responded.

The Pirates then rose from their stations and left the command center to carry out their orders. As they did so, the five High Commanders glanced at each other and the first High Commander said, "Call in all Pirates that aren't evacuating all essential matériel and DNA samples for cloning so that the Space Pirates could rebuild their forces. Tell them that we need them to make their last stand against the Hunter. We have to hold her off as long as possible so that those with the necessary knowledge will be able to escape and rebuild the Space Pirate army."

"Understood," the other High Commanders stated somberly. They then went about their duty, leaving the command center and heading towards Mother Brain, in the hope that they, combined with the organic supercomputer, would be able to stop Samus, once and for all.

Not too far away from the command center, Samus charged forward towards the Pirate command center, coming across two automated defense turrets as its first line of defense. The turrets zeroed in on Samus and began firing a series of blue energy pulses her way. She danced around the turrets' aim as she Seeing these turrets as nothing more than annoyances, she selected her Wave Beam and charged her beam as she continuously remained mobile, making it difficult for the targeting systems of the turret to get an accurate lock. She then fired on the turret. The trio of purple pulses almost instantaneously struck the turret and electricity arced across its metal form. The Charged Wave Beam caused the turret to malfunction and it spun around, firing wildly in all directions. Samus crouched so as to avoid any stray shots that may have come her way. After a few seconds of continuous fire, the turret exploded into a thousand metallic fragments. She repeated the process with the second turret. Just as with the first one, upon suffering a hit from Samus's Wave Beam, the turret spun out of control, wildly firing in all directions. After a few seconds, it, too, exploded in a shower of shrapnel.

The bounty hunter charged forward towards the command center in the distance, but came across an unexpected defense in the form of a force field. She skidded to a halt before colliding with the energy barrier. Not seeing a clear way to lower the force field, she activated her Scan Visor and scanned it. The scan came back, reading, _Force field. A powerful force field produced from multiple micro power generators located on the floor. Shooting the generators will result in the lowering of the force field. Use Wave Beam for best results_.

Samus searched for the reactors, which she soon spotted on the left wall and the right wall. She raised her arm cannon to the generator along the left wall and charged her Wave Beam. She then fired on the generator and disabled it with a single shot. She then targeted the generator on the right wall and disabled that one in turn as well. She then switched to her Plasma Beam and destroyed both generators with a Charged Shot for each. She then marched forward, and to the next force field. She followed the same procedure that she had done for the first force field, and soon, the second force field collapsed as well.

As she approached the third force field, she noticed that this area was filled with more automated defense turrets. These turrets, however, did not fire energy pulses, but explosive slugs. The slugs, if they managed to connect with Samus, would only inflict minimal damage to her suit, but when dealing with Mother Brain, every little bit of energy would be vital. She targeted the closest of the turrets and unleashed a charged Plasma blast towards the turret. The turret was melted by the plasma and only a glowing pile of slag remained, which fell from the ceiling and onto the floor. She then systematically destroyed the rest of the turrets in this area. Once they were destroyed, she focused on lowering the force field.

She approached the blue translucent energy barrier and could see the metal structure that was the Space Pirate command center. She tried to glance past the structure to see if there was any sign of Mother Brain or any of the other members of High Command. She did, however, spot the forms of several Space Pirate Troopers, though. She then backed away from the force field and promptly destroyed the other generators just as she had with the previous two.

Once the force field was down, she surged forward. The last line of defense came in the form of a quartet of Vigilance-class turrets. Four Space Pirate Troopers jumped into the turrets, causing the massive gray cannons to sprout from the ground and turn to face the bounty hunter. Samus immediately went evasive as the four turrets opened fire on her. Massive green energy blasts erupted from the turrets and streaked towards Samus. The first for missed her entirely, but their strikes against the ground created massive explosions that rivaled her Super Missiles in firepower. However, she was too far away from the blasts to sustain any damage. Still, she realized that with four cannons, it would only be a matter of time before one of them got lucky and inflicted some real damage to her. She needed to get rid of those turrets as quickly as possible. That task, however, was made more difficult by the appearance of the five remaining Space Pirate High Commanders.

She grimaced as she had to avoid the incoming fire from the five Space Pirate Commanders, in addition to the Vigilance-class turrets. The High Commanders opened fire on Samus, unleashing a hail of energy fire her way. She leapt into a Screw Attack and deflected the fire, sustaining no damage. The plasma blasts from the turrets exploded against her Screw Attack shields, but they were unharmed. She retaliated by surging towards the Space Pirate Commanders, using them for cover as she began to target the Vigilance-class turrets. The Space Pirates scattered from her, giving her a moment to focus on one of the turrets. She uncurled herself and charged her Wave Beam, hoping that it would have the same effect on the stronger Vigilance-class turrets that it would have on the automated defense turrets. She fired on the turret and the three undulating purple pulses collided with the turret, electricity arcing across its form. Just like the automated defense turret, the Vigilance-class turret began to spin around, firing uncontrollably in random directions. The Pirate operator did his best to keep the turret from firing on the troopers, but in his attempt to regain control of the turret, he fixed its location towards his own forces. The turret then unleashed blast after blast into Space Pirate High Command. One of the Commanders sustained a direct hit and was blown apart by the emerald energy blast.

Seeing that the turret was out of control, the rest of High Command turned their weapons on the disabled turret and fired on it. In the interest of self-preservation, and potential mercy from the Federation for "betraying" his people, he continued to fire on High Command, obliterating another Commander, and scattering the rest, forcing them to move away from the turret and go evasive in order to avoid its fire. This forced them to rely on the other turrets to deal with Samus.

Seeing her chance to divide the Space Pirate defenders, she targeted the second of the Vigilance turrets and unleashed a Charged Wave Beam shot at it. The blast struck the turret and, just like the first turret, the second turret began to spin around and fire randomly all over the place. Unlike the operator of the first turret, though, this Pirate decided to _not_ attempt to regain control of the turret, instead, allowing it to fire randomly and hope for the best, not wanting to risk locking it into firing towards any of the surviving members of High Command. Unfortunately, he had the bad luck of one of his own energy blasts firing on one of the surviving High Commanders and blowing him apart with a single energy blast. His only saving grace was that his random fire forced Samus to be on her guard as well.

This did it for the operators of the other two turrets. They swiveled their turrets towards the malfunctioning turrets and with single energy bolts, destroyed them, killing the Pirates inside. However, this took their attention away from Samus, who punished them with charged blasts from her Wave Beam. She fired on the first turret and electricity arced across the turret as soon as the Wave Beam blast hit it. The turret spun out of control, firing randomly. The Pirate operator, knowing the fate of his comrades, wasted no time trying to regain control of the turret or sitting inside the malfunctioning weapon. He dove out of the turret before either his commanders, or his comrade in the other turret, killed him when they destroyed the turret. The Space Pirates could not catch a break, though, for as soon as he dove away from the turret, the turret spun towards him and fired a single emerald energy blast. The unfortunate Pirate Trooper was vaporized by the blast as it hit him in the back and exploded.

Samus then focused on the remaining turret, firing her Wave Beam on the turret. The trio of purple pulses left her arm cannon and streaked towards the turret. As the beam hit, electricity arced across the turret and it began to spin out of control and fire in random directions. Samus took this opportunity to switch to her Plasma Beam and charge her beam. Once it was charged, she opened fire on the out of control turret, destroying it after three charged shots.

Once the turrets had been destroyed, she focused her attention towards the two remaining High Commanders. The Commanders, seeing that they were without any remaining support, decided that it would be best to retreat and fight alongside Mother Brain and the rest of the support behind them, which had neglected to come forward to support the Pirates when the turrets had started going haywire. Samus pursued the Pirates, making her way past the abandoned command center. As they were fleeing the hunter, they occasionally turned around to take a few potshots at Samus, but none of them hit. She returned the favor with several blasts from her Wave Beam, hoping to short out their armor. The tracking blasts managed to strike one of the Pirates, phasing through his shields and striking his armor, disabling the armor suit and neutralizing the shields. Electricity arced across his body, but he continued to lug his form towards their final fallback point. The other Pirate High Commander did nothing to help his comrade, though, as Samus locked onto him, switched to her Power Beam, and charged it. Once the beam was charged, she fired a Super Missile at the Pirate. The missile erupted from her arm cannon and rocketed towards the Pirate. It struck him in the back and blew him apart, pieces of metal being propelled outward from the center of the explosion. Only one High Commander was left, not counting the gravely wounded Ridley and Mother Brain, who was still regarded more as an organic supercomputer than the Space Pirate leader that she had been on Zebes.

She continued to pursue the final High Commander until he arrived close to the edge of an underground lake. There, Mother Brain's stasis chamber sat. Surrounding the chamber were almost three-dozen Space Pirate Troopers, with several Commandos joining the group. Once he arrived, the Pirate High Commander turned back around to face Samus and grinned. "You've fallen into our trap, Hunter," he boasted. "With Mother Brain and the rest of our forces backing me up, you're gonna die, right here, right now."

Samus could only grin. She had them. She could end it all right now. All she had to do was take out Mother Brain and the rest of the Pirates here. She focused her gaze on Mother Brain and scanner her, the scan coming back, _Morphology – Mother Brain. Subject is an organic supercomputer cloned from the original Chozo organic supercomputer located on Zebes. Subject is encased in a stasis tank that is powered by a zero point micro-reactor and is protected by shields invulnerable all but the strongest of anti-vehicle weaponry. _

Not caring about holding back against the Pirates, and knowing that she would need a lot of power to penetrate the shield protecting Mother Brain, she readied a Power Missile and did not bother to zero in on any particular Pirate, merely aiming the missile at Mother Brain's stasis chamber. Once she was lined up with Mother Brain's chamber, she unleashed the Power Missile upon it. The missile rocketed from her cannon and streaked forward towards the chamber. Several Pirate Troopers ducked so as to avoid taking the missile to their own chests. It did them little good, though, for the missile was as powerful as a tactical nuclear bomb. It struck the shields of Mother Brain's stasis chamber and detonated in a sphere of fire. Samus Screw Attacked backwards, just to make sure that if the blast washed over her, that she would be uninjured. The Space Pirates, however, were not so fortunate. The sole remaining High Commander and two-dozen Space Pirate Troopers and Commandos were instantly annihilated in the explosion. Those who were on the edges of the blast suffered far less than the unfortunate Pirates closer to the point of impact, but were severely injured, some of them fatally. As for Mother Brain, the shields of her stasis tank collapsed due to the Power Missile's detonation and the glass had multiple cracks in it, but the glass did not shatter. A single missile would be sufficient to break the cracked glass and allow her to start inflicting damage on the brain, though. Mother Brain focused her eye on Samus, waiting for the point where she would shatter the tube, and the two enemies would be able to exchange fire with one another. As for the rest of the Pirates, those who were uninjured, or were only slightly wounded decided that they had no chance against Samus and the Commandos, who had taken command of the Pirates, commanded, "All Space Pirate forces, retreat to the transport! We have to get out of here, now!"

The surviving Space Pirates had no problem following the order and gave up the fight, fleeing from Samus so as to try to escape. Samus, however, was not so willing to let them go. She fired a Super Missile after the first batch of fleeing Pirates, locking onto their leader, a Commando, before firing. The missile struck the Commando and blew him apart. The rest of his squad was bunched close together, so they were also caught in the blast. Four other Space Pirate Troopers were killed by the Super Missile, with five others suffering moderate to severe wounds. The rest of the Space Pirates continued to retreat, many of them stopping to pick up some the survivors because they were members of Science Team and would be vital to the efforts of the survivors in recreating the Space Pirate forces. Still, four Space Pirate Commandos still remaining with Mother Brain to support her while the other survivors retreated.

As soon as the other Pirates began retreating, the Pirate Commandos laid down covering fire, unleashing vicious volleys of energy bolts and EMP grenades at Samus. She deftly dodged the incoming fire and retaliated by switching to her Ice Beam. She targeted the lead Pirate Commando and fired the Charged Ice blast. The blast of ice rocketed towards the Pirate and froze him solid upon impact. Knowing that the Pirate would remain frozen for some time, though, she targeted another Commando with her Ice Beam, and opened fire once it was charged. The second Pirate was soon frozen and now was the time that Samus decided to shatter the two frozen Pirates. Locking onto the two Pirates, she unleashed two missiles from her arm cannon. The missiles zeroed in on their targets and shattered them. As the Pirates were shattered, what looked to be a pack of missiles appeared over their shattered forms. Samus did not draw them in yet, though. She wanted to deal with the other Pirates before rearming herself.

As she was firing on the two frozen Pirates, the two unfrozen Pirate Commandos charged her using their dash jet systems and deployed their energy scythes, taking swipes at Samus in an attempt to weaken her shields. She managed to evade their attempts to kill her, charging her Ice Beam as they attempted to cleave her in half, and retaliated by freezing one of them solid. Once the Pirate was frozen solid, she shattered him with a single missile. Like the first two, this Pirate also had a missile pack rise above his head.

Samus quickly turned her attention towards the sole remaining Pirate and charged her Ice Beam once more. As she charged her beam, the Pirate activated his dash jet system once more in an attempt to charge her and damage her. She let loose her Ice Beam just as he was nearing her and she had to dive out of the way to avoid the now frozen Space Pirate as he fell to the ground but, seemingly miraculously, did not shatter. Samus caused the miracle to be short-lived as she fired a missile at the Pirate and promptly shattered him. The final Pirate also had a pack of missiles rise from his body. That left only Mother Brain for her to deal with.

Samus turned to face the brain and fired a single missile at the stasis tank. The missile leapt from her arm cannon and streaked towards the tank, Mother Brain making no reaction one way or the other. The missile struck the tank and blew a hole in the tank, shattering the front of the tank and sending in shards of glass to the brain, causing her to be pierced by some of the shards, fluids leaking from the breaches. The brain gave a slight groan at the injuries and closed her eye to focus on attack. Samus used this opportunity to turn back to the missile packs that had risen from the fallen Pirates and tractor them in by charging her Power Beam. As she charged her beam, the missile packs were drawn into her suit. Once they made contact, they were integrated into her missile complement and her missile total was brought back up to two hundred and fifty.

Once she was fully armed, she targeted Mother Brain and unleashed her Super Missile just as Mother Brain opened her eye to unleash a blue energy wave from her eye. Before the brain could release the attack, though, Samus's Super Missile collided with the eye, inflicting significant damage to it. Samus did not stop there, though. She charged another Super Missile and let loose at Mother Brain once more. Again, the missile struck the area of the eye, which was closed but made not difference since the missile still inflicted damage to the brain. With Mother Brain suffering damage to the eye, she was unable to focus on launching an attack on Samus. She was defenseless before the bounty hunter, who took advantage of her weakness by charging another Super Missile and unleashing it on her. Samus repeated the process several times, each missile not only inflicting damage to the organic supercomputer, but also to the tank, itself. The entire backside of the tank was soon blown out and the top part of the tank merely sat on Mother Brain's top. After a few more Super Missiles, the brain had had enough. After a final Super Missile was unleashed at the brain and connected, a series of explosions rang out around Mother Brain. The stasis tank collapsed and the brain fell to the floor, there to sit for a few seconds.

Over near the warp-capable evacuation transport, General Weavel ushered the last of the Space Pirate survivors onboard, some of them missing limbs, and other, more grievously wounded troopers, being carried onboard by other comrades. All in all, though, there were only a handful of troopers to be carried onboard a transport that had the capability of holding a hundred Space Pirate Troopers plus equipment. Looking through his visor, along with a Space Pirate Commando into the distance as Mother Brain's capsule exploded and the brain fell to the floor. While they knew that the battle was far from over, they both glanced at each other and nodded solemnly. Turning to go back into the transport, they went over to one of the surviving members of Science Team and asked, "Did you place the timed subspace bomb?"

The Science Trooper nodded. "Yeah, we set it before the call to arms against the Hunter. How are things going?"

"Terrible," the Commando said flatly.

"Get everyone onboard," Weavel commanded. "I'm assuming command until Ridley is fit to be able to resume his command."

The Pirates nodded and ushered everyone onboard, save for the Science Trooper. He gazed at the Science Trooper and told him, "Set the planet killer bomb now. Set it for a five minute detonation."

"Understood, sir," the Science Trooper responded. He then went down to set the massive bomb that was situated in a hole beneath the transport. Once he sat the bomb to five minutes, he flicked the switch and ran back onto the transport as quickly as possible. The moment he stepped on the boarding ramp, it began to close. Once the trooper was onboard, Weavel called to the command crew, "Alright, everyone's onboard. Get us the hell out of here!"

The Space Pirate transport then lifted off the ground, precious seconds ticking away as Samus and Mother Brain continued their battle. Pointing the ship towards the roof, the transport unleashed a volley of blue energy pulses at the ceiling. The pulses blew a hole in the ceiling large enough to fly the transport through. For a fleeting moment, the command crew of the transport considered opening fire on Samus on the off chance that they would be able to kill her or inflict serious damage to her. They declined the chance for fear of not inflicting sufficient damage and also destroying Mother Brain in the process. In addition, Samus had a Power Missile that was capable of damaging them and they did not want to draw attention to themselves, for fear that Samus would shoot them down if they did not kill her with the first shot. The shot through the hole in the ceiling and proceeded to rocket upwards, blasting their way through the ceilings of the other levels. Eventually, they came to the top level of the mountain and, seeing that there was already a hole for them to fly through, rocketed through the hole and into the sky.

Once they were in the sky, the pilot reported to Weavel, "We're clear of the mountain."

"Check for any signs of Federation activity," the general commanded.

The co-pilot immediately glanced down at his sensors and replied, "Sir, we're detecting a single Cornerian Arwing-class starfighter, along with a Landmaster Tank sitting outside one of the exits." Checking his sensors again, the Pirate Trooper amended, "Sir, I'm also detecting a Federation Heavy Assault Shuttle, along with two skiffs and half a dozen atmospheric fighters, Hellcat-class, on long-range sensors. They're still a few minutes away. We should be well away by the time they reach the mountain and detect our ion trail."

"Keep me posted and redirect power to rear shields should they come after us. As for now, get us into orbit. Once we clear the gravity well, jump us to warp."

"Yes, sir," the pilot and co-pilot answered.

The craft continued to rocket through the atmosphere, doing its best to not attract attention to itself. Long-range sensors indicated multiple air battles taking place in the Earth's atmosphere between Federation starfighters, and Earth and Galactic Federation in Exile aero-and-starfighters. The Earth and Federation in Exile fighters were more than holding their own against the Galactic Federation, getting the better part of every exchange, both in numbers, as well as percentages of forces lost. The Space Pirates did not know whether to be happy or concerned, for while they hated the Galactic Federation, during the reign of Keaton, and especially during the reigns of Elric and Cyrus, they had managed to get infiltrators into the Galactic Federation. However, they had been notoriously unable to do so with the Galactic Federation in Exile, or Earth. In fact, it had been the Galactic Federation in Exile that had crippled the Space Pirates, in addition to finding the infiltrators and traitors inside the Federation, with the exception of Cyrus, and eliminate them.

Soon broke through the atmosphere and approached the planetary shields, preparing to go to warp in order to breach them. The problem was that due to the fact that their sensors were cut off, they would have to revert back to normal space and calculate another jump before being able to escape the system, and given what the long-range sensors were telling them. Weavel kept checking his timer, and saw that there were less than two minutes remaining on the countdown clock for the Earth's destruction. Once they were ready to jump, a subspace window opened and the ship accelerated on through.

Not far beyond the orbit of Earth, another subspace window opened and the Space Pirate transport reverted back into normal space, in the middle of an exchange of fire between the Galactic Federation in Exile fleet and the Federation starfleet off in the distance. None of the ships of either side were visible, though, and only a wave of Federation starfighters was the physical evidence of the battle, besides the scarlet, green, and blue energy bolts being exchanged between the two fleets.

"Calculate a jump to an inhabitable unoccupied planet, now!" Weavel cried as the laser blasts were getting closer. Several starfighters flew past the Pirate transport but did not open fire. Given the fact that they were of the Rapier-class, Weavel suspected that they were Galactic Federation starfighters, especially since they did not fire on his transports.

Just then, the co-pilot cried, "Sir, we've got incoming missiles coming from behind!"

The pilot immediately went evasive, but none of the missiles followed them. Instead, the Federation fighters were the targets of the missiles, and many of them exploded off in the distance. Just then, bright flash lit up the view port a millisecond after a scarlet energy lance lashed out into the distance. One of the Federation ships had been destroyed. The Space Pirates paid no attention to the fate of the Federation warship beyond visual range as they continued to calculate their next warp jump. Just then, they saw missile flash past the cockpit of their transport and head towards a large Federation Claymore-class bomber. The missile struck port side of the craft, breaching its shields and shearing off a wing. Pieces of metal flew off of the craft and electrical sparks and smoke trailed the craft. The craft careened out of control towards the boxy Space Pirate transport. Weavel noticed the incoming bomber and cried to the pilot, "Watch out!" But it was too late.

The ship then lurched, knocking Weavel to the ground, as sparks erupted from the weapons console, either killing or severely injuring the Pirate Trooper that had been manning it. Weavel quickly stood back up and looked over at the pilot and co-pilot, both of who were strapped into their chairs. "Damage!" he cried.

"Damage to upper rear quadrant of the ship. One of our engines has been destroyed. Our makeshift sickbay is gone, and casualties have been reported."

"Can we still jump?"

"Yes," the pilot replied. "But it won't be a long jump, and it will be slow."

"Do it and take us as far away from here as possible," Weavel commanded.

"Understood, sir," the pilot replied. The ship then opened an unstable subspace window, and jumped to warp. As they jumped, Weavel gave a grimace. With the additional casualties, things were looking even grimmer than before. And if the casualties were from Science Team, or Medical Team, then the prospects of rebuilding the Space Pirates were looking grim.

During the Pirates' escape from Earth, Samus watched as Mother Brain began to rise from the floor and float. The brain looked even more organic than she had remembered from previous battles. Still, there were several technological components that made her reminiscent of Aurora Unit 313. Most notably, she had four spikes deployed to either side of her head. The brain issued a sinister laugh and opened her single eye, focusing it on Samus. Samus took this opportunity to scan the brain, her scan coming back, reading, _Morphology – Mother Brain. Outside of her stasis tank, her weakness, her cerebellum, has been exposed. Attacks include four yellow laser attacks fired from mechanical spikes to either side of her head, a Laser Brain attack from her central eye, and an energy wave that is emanated from a deployed node._

Mother Brain tilted her eye down at Samus and said, "The time has come for you to die, my child. Regardless of the outcome of this battle, you will not survive."

Samus merely grinned. Mother Brain was arrogant, and she would make sure that it would cost the brain her life. Just then, a voice rang out around the cavern, alerting everyone here, "Time bomb set. Escape immediately!" A countdown clock then appeared, showing that Samus had five minutes to find the bomb and either disarm it, or evacuate the mountain. Opening a channel to her parents, she told them, "Mom, Dad, evacuate the mountain now! The Space Pirates have set a time bomb and it's scheduled to go off in five minutes. I'll try to disarm it, but don't hold your breaths."

A moment of silence passed before her parents responded, "We copy, Samus. Good luck."

She then closed the channel and turned when she heard the engines of a Space Pirate Transport roar. She saw the craft lift off from the ground across the lake and rocket towards the ceiling. She also caught a glimmer of metal and went closer to the shore to get a good look at the metal. Activating her Scan Visor once more, she scanned the device, her scan coming back, _Object – Planet killer bomb. A bomb of N'Kren technology and design that opens a rift in subspace on a planet and destabilizes its core, causing it to explode. Raw power of said bomb allows it to be deployed in subterranean areas and still have the desired effect of either destroying a planet, or severely damaging it so as to render the undamaged portions uninhabitable. Also carries reactants to aid in a planet's total destruction._

This was bad. Checking her clock, Samus only had four minutes and forty-five seconds to get to the bomb and disarm it, or somehow send it away. She then remembered the N'Kren emergency teleportation device and hope entered her heart. She had a way to get rid of the bomb even if she could not disarm it. She rushed over to the bridge so she could get to the bomb and try to disarm it so she would not have to transport the bomb to the N'Kren flagship, but Mother Brain intercepted her, hovering before her. "I'm sorry, hatchling, but I cannot let you disarm or remove the bomb," Mother Brain mocked in an arrogant tone.

"You fool!" Samus retorted loudly. "You'll die too if that bomb goes off."

"But you'll be dead, Samus," Mother Brain countered coolly. "And besides, I was sentenced to death the moment the Space Pirate Transport took off."

Mother Brain then closed her eye and particulates of energy were being drawn into her. "Oh no," Samus said softly in dread as she leapt into a Screw Attack, knowing what was to come. Somersaulting towards the bridge, Mother Brain lowered herself to Samus's level, and then opened her eye, unleashing her Laser Brain energy stream. A rainbow cone of energy erupted from Mother Brain's eye and engulfed Samus, who was using her Screw Attack to protect herself. She knew that she was not going to be able to block the entirety of the blast, but she hoped to limit the damage and not have all of her ammunition drained by the attack like she did the last time she encountered this attack. So far, her Screw Attack shields were holding firm against the attack. Energy managed to bleed through the shields, but the damage suffered by Samus was less than half of what she suffered when having to endure a direct hit of her parents' energy streams on her Screw Attack shields. When the attack was over, she had only lost forty units of energy, as opposed to the full Energy Tank that her parents had drained from her.

Upon seeing that Samus was still standing and had suffered only minimal damage, Mother Brain swore, "Damn. Only a small fraction of the energy from the attack leaked through her Screw Attack shields." That did not deter her from preparing another attack. However, Samus had other plans. Focusing on Mother Brain's eye, she charged her Light Beam, seeing that since the missile had proven marvelously effective against someone like Ridley, that an organism as evil as Mother Brain would also be severely damaged as well if she sustained a direct hit. Once her Light Beam was charged, she fired a single charged blast at the eye. A pulse of golden light erupted from her arm cannon and traveled at the speed of light towards Mother Brain's eye. The light scored a direct hit on Mother Brain's eye and the brain cried out in agony, roaring and quivering as it fell to the ground, listing forward. The eye immediately closed and the brain blindly writhed and lashed out, firing numerous yellow laser beams from the spikes protruding from her sides. "Damn you Samus!" she cried out in pain and rage as golden light shown around the brain, inflicting damage despite not hitting her in her weak spot. Samus could only grin as she began to wonder if she was dreaming. There was no way it should be _this_ easy to beat Mother Brain outside of her stasis tank.

She ran around to the rear of the brain and targeted her cerebellum. Charging her Light Beam, she prepared to fire a Light Missile in the hopes of inflicting tremendous damage to the organic supercomputer. Once her beam was charged, she fired the Light Missile at the brain's weak point. The ends of the arm cannon opened and the projectile rocketed out of her cannon at supersonic speeds. The missile scored a direct hit on the cerebellum and exploded in a display of light that was twice as powerful as a Super Missile in base power. However, the resulting damage to Mother Brain was far more severe than two mere Super Missiles. Since the brain was evil and had betrayed the benevolent Chozo species, forcing them off of Zebes and giving the planet to the Space Pirates, the Light Missile inflicted almost as much damage to her as it had to Ridley. Samus watched as a fifth of Mother Brain's life was depleted from the bar. Not only that, but the brain was rendered immobile due to the light's effect of stunning her as well. This gave Samus free reign to charge another Light Missile without having to fear any retaliation. Once the missile was charged, she opened fire once more. The missile struck Mother Brain's cerebellum and the brain cried out again in protest.

Mother Brain struggled to ascend and launch a counterattack against Samus, but it was to no avail. The bounty hunter's Light Missiles had her pinned, and without any Space Pirate support, she was defenseless. She felt another thump, and a burning sensation as the light spread across her entire form and a golden gleam surrounded her. She swore at the hunter once again. "Have you no honor Samus? Attacking an enemy while she's down."

Samus's only answer came in the form of another Light Missile. By now, she had taken Mother Brain down to only one fifth of her original health. Checking on her countdown clock, she saw that she had less than three minutes and twenty seconds to get to the bomb and disarm it. She considered making a dash for the bomb now, but she remembered that Mother Brain still had her Laser Brain attack, and would use it once she recovered, not caring about her own safety if it also doomed Samus in the process. Seeing that one more Light Missile would do the trick, Samus charged her Light Beam one more time.

Miraculously, Mother Brain managed to recover and rose, preparing one last Laser Brain attack. Before doing so, though, she issued forth four laser beams from the spikes, zeroing in on Samus, hoping to stop her from charging her last Light Missile. The beams were initially off their mark, allowing Samus to move around, evading them, and focus on Mother Brain's cerebellum. Once she had locked onto Mother Brain's cerebellum, and charged her Light Beam, she fired just as Mother Brain unleashed her Laser Brain attack and was about to sweep it towards Samus, and the planet killer bomb. The Laser Brain wave created a massive rend in the basement walls, causing the collapse of the ceiling in those areas. While Mother Brain swept her destruction wave around in the hopes of scoring a hit on Samus and inflicting severe damage to her, the missile tracked her cerebellum as she spun. The missile scored a direct hit just before her beam was about ninety degrees to Samus's position. As the missile exploded, Mother Brain was bathed in a massive glow of light and disintegrated in midair, screaming in agony for the few seconds she was still alive. Her scream faded as she did, along with the last shimmers of light. After her destruction, Mother Brain's form was replaced with numerous missiles, even a Power Missile, along with a few Red Energy Capsules. Charging her Light Beam, Samus drew in the missiles and Energy Capsules. Once they touched her and were integrated into her suit, completely restoring her energy and ammunition, she ran towards the bridge and crossed it, making her way over to the bomb. She activated her Scan Visor so she would have a clear image of the bomb as she crossed the bridge.

Once she arrived on the other side, she quickly located the bomb went over to it. Stooping down, she noted that there were two minutes and forty-five seconds before the bomb was scheduled to detonate. She scanned the device with her Scan Visor, in an attempt to shut it off, but the scan came back, reading, _Subspace bomb of N'Kren and Chozo design. Computer security systems make it immune to hacking. Countdown cannot be stopped once initiated._

_Crud_, Samus though harshly. This was not what she needed. She saw the emergency teleportation unit that was still attached to her suit and grabbed it; quickly scanning it to make sure that it had not been damaged in the recent battles. Upon seeing that it was undamaged and functioning normally, she opened a channel to Admiral Dane onboard the _G.F.S. Olympus_. She told him, "Admiral Dane, this is Samus Aran. What is the status of your fleet at the moment? Repeat; this is Samus Aran to Admiral Dane. What is the status of your fleet right now?"

Onboard the _G.F.S. Olympus_, Admiral Dane stood on the bridge as the first volley of a new round of fighting had been fired. The fleet had been pushed back close to the Earth's planetary shields and could fall back no farther. It would only be a matter of time before the vastly superior numbers that the current Galactic Federation fleet possessed would reach firing range and begin opening up on the Federation in Exile fleet and the Defense Grid of Earth. As he was about to order another volley of energy cannon fire, the voice of Lieutenant Gates rang out over the bridge, towards Admiral Dane and said, "Sir, there's a transmission coming in for you. It's from Samus!"

"Put it on!" the Admiral blurted.

Gates then put the transmission over speakers. Samus's voice rang out over the bridge, saying, "Repeat, this is Samus Aran to Admiral Dane. What is the status of your fleet right now?"

"We're backed up to the Earth's shields, but we're holding the line, for the moment. Why?"

"Are there any starfighters launching sorties among the enemy fleet?"

"Yes," Dane answered. "Why?"

"Tell them to jump away from the fleet now, and if I were you, I'd get as far away from the enemy fleet as possible, too!" she answered loudly. "I'm sitting next to a planet killer bomb that the Space Pirates planted inside Mount Coronet. I have a N'Kren emergency teleportation device that will teleport the bomb to the bridge of the N'Kren flagship. There isn't much time left before it detonates. Even without the special planet-killing effects of the bomb, the subspace shockwave generated from the blast will be devastating and could possibly threaten the Earth, Luna, and ships in your own fleet. Alert Earth and Luna to raise their planetary shields to full power at once. I don't know how far the shockwave will expand."

"We're on it," Dane replied.

He then told Lieutenant Gates, "Alert Earth and Luna as to the situation and tell our fighters to jump away from the fleet now!" Turning to the helmsman, he said, "Lieutenant Commander Hastings, take us to the far side of the planet, now, and tell the rest of the fleet to join us. I don't know if that bomb is as powerful as Samus fears, but it's better to be safe than sorry."

"Understood, sir," both Gates and Hastings replied as they went about their work.

Among the Federation fleet, the Federation in Exile starfighters launching sorties in the center of the enemy fleet were continuing to launch their attacks. Several missile destroyers had been destroyed in the most recent sortie and they were preparing to make another run on a couple Olympus-class battleships when their new orders came in. At first, they could hardly believe the orders and the wing commanders said, "This is Defender Wing Commander, General Lee. Confirm previous orders."

"Order confirmation code Zero, One Omega," the voice of Lieutenant Gates came in.

"Order Confirmed," General Lee replied. Opening a channel to the rest of the wing, he said, "New orders from command. All fighters break away and jump, confirmation code Zero, One, Omega."

"Order received," the rest of the fighter pilots replied. The pilots then disengaged from the enemy fleet and numerous subspace windows were opened as the Federation in Exile fighters fled from the Federation fleet. The rest of the fighters from the Federation fleet that had been fighting the Federation in Exile ships tried to follow but were unable to do so, and their pilots could only hope that the fleeing fighters appeared on long-range sensors soon.

Back on the bridge of the _Olympus_ Lieutenant Commander Bly reported, "Sir, all fighters have jumped away sir."

Admiral Dane nodded and then turned back to his private channel with Samus. "Samus everything's ready. You're clear to give that bomb to the enemy," he told her.

"Understood, sir," came her response.

Down inside the basement of Mount Coronet, Samus heard Admiral Dane's confirmation that the fighters were clear and that his fleet was moving behind the Earth. She looked down at the bomb sadly, knowing that she was about to sentence thousands of N'Kren, and possibly more than a million souls to death, but it was better than having six billion plus die if this bomb went off on Earth. She pressed the emergency teleportation unit to the side of the bomb, being careful to not set off any sensitive electronics and cause a premature detonation. Remembering Hi'Gor's instructions on its use, she turned the knob on the front of the device forty-five degrees clockwise, and then pushed the button. A field of energy surrounded the bomb and she saw it begin to fade away. Checking the countdown clock, she saw that there were still twenty-six seconds left on the clock. By the time the bomb had completely vanished, there were only twenty seconds. She then said a silent prayer that the bomb's detonation would not threaten either Luna, or the Earth.

Onboard the N'Kren flagship, the N'Kren fleet commander stood on the bridge as the fleet approached the Earth. The bridge was laid out like a temple, with the captain's chair in the center, and a series of consoles below the captain, fanning out. With Earth's moon behind him he focused his attention on the blue and green planet in front of him, along with the small dots that surrounded the planet. "Status of the Earth fleet," he bellowed.

A male N'Kren soldier, glanced down at his sensor screen and replied, "Federation fleet has sustained moderate damage. More than five thousand ships still remain in fighting condition, though."

The fleet commander gave a smirk. The Federation fleet and its allies had more than four times that number currently assembled. Cyrus had authorized the pulling of multiple planetary defense fleets, stripping them to the bones, to bring in a fleet that would be capable of overrunning the defenses of Earth. So far, only the superior range of the Earth and Galactic Federation in Exile's ships had allowed this match to be anything close to fair. He had felt that bringing in so many ships had been a waste, and that it had been unnecessary. They vastly outnumbered the forces at Earth and the Galactic Federation in Exile had brought in almost their entire fleet to take the Earth. Now that they had taken the planet, they were desperate to hold it at all costs until Cyrus could be found and killed. He would not allow that to happen; and he knew that Admiral Breaz, commander of the Galactic Federation fleet now that Morg was dead, would not allow that to happen, either.

Soon, a transmission came in over the comm from Breaz. The Star Elf's holographic form appeared on the holopad and he said, "Fleet Commander Ka'Lok, we're making our big push. I want you to join the center ranks of our fleet. Keep back about half of your ships, like us and the Ylla. About ten thousand ships should be sufficient to take down the defenses of the Earth."

"I agree, Admiral," Ka'Lok replied.

"Good," Breaz answered as the communication was cut.

Ka'Lok the stared forward and ordered, "Take us to the center lines. Once there, open fire on the Earth Defense Fleet and Defense Grid."

"Yes, sir," the pilot answered as he took the ship towards the center of the Federation fleet.

As they began to move, a field of energy appeared on the forward section of the command deck just in front of the ship control consoles. Eventually, the field of energy faded and the planet killer bomb was revealed, twenty seconds still left on the timer as it continued to count down. Ka'Lok stepped down from his chair and told the others, "Continue to move the ship to the center of the fleet," as he stepped forward to examine the newly arriving package, not realizing that he was sentencing more than a million people to death with his decision. He approached the bomb and leaned down, glancing at the timer count down from ten seconds before he realized what the device was.

"Jump us into the Earth fleet now!" he roared to the bridge crew.

"Sir?" the helmsman questioned, raising his eye arches.

"Just do it! Fast!" he cried at the top of his lungs.

The bridge crew quickly went about following his orders, making the calculations for the jump as the timer ticked down, but they were too slow. The timer reached zero just as the helmsman reached for the lever to begin the jump and the bomb exploded, annihilating the ship and many others.

A bright light erupted from the center of the Galactic Federation fleet as the planet killer bomb exploded. The initial blast consumed and instantly vaporized more than two hundred warships, many of them powerful battleships and dreadnaughts. The resulting subspace shockwave was no less deadly, destroying thousands of starships of various classes, and damaging many more. The destructive shockwave continued to spread in all directions, shearing the hull of entire vessels, shattering them before their own cores breached and exploded. Entire fighter star forces were destroyed as the fighters were annihilated by the detonation. It was not long before the Moon was buffeted by the shockwave produced by the bomb. However, the Moon's planetary shields managed to hold against the assault and Luna suffered no damage from the shockwave, which was more than could be said about the Galactic Federation fleet and its allies.

As the shockwave continued to expand, it eventually got weaker, merely shattering the shields or burning off the outer hulls of starships, or merely rendering them dead in space, rather than shattering them on contact. Still, any ship that was not a cruiser or stronger was usually either destroyed or rendered dead in space with multiple hull breaches and most, if not all, of the crew dead. It was not until the shockwave nearly dispersed that some of the weaker ships, like the carriers and even destroyers and frigates, started to survive the shockwave, albeit not without taking severe damage. The _Great Fox II_, for instance, had suffered a complete shield failure and most of the outer hull was sheared off by the shockwave. When the shockwave had passed, the ship was rendered dead in space, with life support systems fluctuating wildly. The main reactor had needed to be ejected, and its explosions after ejection had afflicted most, if not all, of the surviving crew with severe radiation poisoning.

Standing on the bridge of the _Lucifer_, acrid smoke stung the eyes of Admiral Breaz as he stood back up after his ship had been buffeted by the outer edges of the shockwave. He checked the bridge and found that Ensign Teeta, his communications officer, was dead, her console having exploded in her face, shredding her with shrapnel. Scanning the bridge, three other officers were down, and judging by the fact that none of them were moving, he figured that they were either dead or dying. He moved back to his captain's chair and looked around the bridge. "Report," he bellowed. "What the hell just hit us?"

The officer manning the sensor station, a young Nalar, a blue-skinned humanoid that was noticeably taller than a normal human, checked the sensors and responded, "Sir, a subspace shockwave originated from the _Bellot_, the N'Kren flagship. The ship has since disappeared in its entirety. There's no trace of it left."

"Did it suicide attack us?"

"Impossible to say, sir," the sensor officer answered. "Still, the explosion was far too powerful to be a reactor core detonation, even for a N'Kren warship. Several other N'Kren ships were destroyed and we didn't suffer this type of damage when they went off."

"Damage to the _Lucifer_?"

"Relatively minor," the Nalar responded. "Our shields are down to eighty percent, but there was a power surge that fried a few non-essential bridge consoles." The evidence of that were the dead Star Elf ensign and a few other officers.

Breaz shrugged. "Well, anyway. Tell us how badly the rest of the fleet has been hurt."

The young officer looked down at his sensor screen and his eyes went wide, along with his face practically going white. This did not escape Admiral Breaz's notice. "What is it, Lieutenant? What's going on?'

"S…s…sir, four thousand ships are no longer appearing on sensors, with another four thousand plus appearing to be either dead in space, severely crippled, or are otherwise unable to continue fighting," the young Nalar said in a quivering voice. "More than a third of our fleet is either destroyed, dead in space, or otherwise too badly damaged to continue the fight. In addition, a few thousand more have suffered moderate to heavy damage and are not going to be able to fight at one hundred percent efficiency. In addition, any and all starfighters that were out have been annihilated by the shockwave. We are now extremely vulnerable to starfighter attack."

Breaz nearly fell into his chair at the statement. "Sir," the young Nalar said, "the Earth Defense Fleet is coming out from behind the Earth and is entering their weapons' range once more. I am detecting that the shockwave did not reach the lines of the Federation in Exile ships, or even the defense platforms and turrets."

"Damn," Breaz swore. "Assemble the remaining ships in our fleet and tell the others that we had hang back to get their asses up here now. We're gonna take the fight to the Federation in Exile fleet."

"Is that wise, sir?" the Nalar asked. "We only outnumber them a little more than two-to-one, and many of our N'Kren and Ylla ships have been destroyed. Not only that, but a good number of our remaining ships have suffered damage and are not functioning at one hundred percent efficiency. In addition, we've got the Defense Grid and the surface missiles from Earth to deal with."

"It's our only option!" Breaz retorted. We have to do something now! If we don't, then Dane will be able to send down more troops and to help locate Chairman Cyrus and kill him!"

"I see," the sensor officer responded, not liking the prospect of fighting the Galactic Federation in Exile in their current condition, but seeing that there was little choice, he turned back to his console and focused on his job. He only hoped that the Admiral was not being too rash. They were no good to Cyrus, or their other, true, masters, dead.

Back on the _G.F.S. Olympus_, Admiral Dane looked out the bridge window as the planet killer bomb went off and gouged a massive hole in the lines of the enemy fleet. He could scarcely believe his eyes as the explosion consumed the entire center of Breaz's fleet and continued to expand outward, destroying every ship that it washed over. Dane could not take his eyes off the scene as the enemy fleet was being torn to shreds by the tremendous shockwave.

After a few minutes, it eventually dispersed and Dane looked over at Lieutenant Commander Bly, saying, "Report."

Bly checked down at the tactical sensors and responded, "Four thousand enemy ships have been destroyed, with over four thousand more either being dead in space, crippled, or damaged severely enough to be unable to continue fighting. That's more than a third of their fleet, sir. And in addition to those casualties, several thousand more ships took moderate to severe shield and other forms of damage, meaning that they're not fighting at full strength; not to mention the fact that any starfighter that was outside the ships in the affected area were wiped out. To make things even better, all remaining N'Kren singularity dreadnaughts were destroyed in the explosion, with most of the other N'Kren fleet suffering severe losses. In addition, the Ylla fleet has also sustained moderate to heavy losses. The invading Federation fleet is now extremely vulnerable to a fighter attack and we have the edge of the Chozo and Luminoth ships still being relatively fresh."

"Then we'll take advantage of it," Dane responded. Turning to Lieutenant Gates, he commanded, "Tell our starfighters that jumped away but still have anti-capital ship missiles to jump back into the enemy fleet and soften them up even more. Tell them to focus on ships that have moderate to heavy damage, but to avoid ships that are already dead or are otherwise unable to fight. Then tell the rest of the fleet to remain just outside of the weapons range of the Federation fleet, while putting our front lines just within range of their own front lines. Have the formation be the same as it was before, battleships and battlecruisers with heavy laser and energy cannon complements up front, with missile ships in the back, well out of range of the enemy ships. Also, have the front lines focus on the stronger ships of the line, as well. We have a chance to cripple their fleet and throw them into complete chaos. Let's take advantage of it."

After a few moments, Lieutenant Gates informed Dane, "The fleet has responded and they've acknowledged the order. They're moving their ships into position."

The fleet did as was directed, bringing up the Olympus-class battleships and Archangel-class battlecruisers to the front and the missile frigates, destroyers, and cruisers to the back, where their superior range would allow them to hurl their munitions into the ranks of the Federation fleet without fear of facing any return fire from the Federation fleet.

Once the fleet was in position, Admiral Dane gave the order, "Fire," and the ships opened up on the Federation starfleet.

The Federation in Exile ships and the Earth Defense Grid unleashed a barrage of laser and plasma fire upon the front lines of the enemy fleet, while the missile ships unloaded their payload upon the deeper ranks of the Federation fleet. To Dane, it was very much like a medieval battle in space, but forcing a battle like this played to their benefit, since despite the disadvantage in numbers, their superior weapons range would force the enemy fleet to rush into the lien of fire and sustain damage. The first casualty of the counterattack was a relatively fresh Gehenna-class dreadnaught known as the _G.F.S. Legion_, who engaged the _G.F.S. Michael_, an Archangel-class battlecruiser and was annihilated by the battlecruiser without being able to inflict much shield damage before getting obliterated. It was soon joined in death by many Olympus-class battleships and Asgard-class heavy cruisers. And this was all before the Federation in Exile starfighters appeared in the center of the Federation fleet and continued to harry the Federation ships, finishing off those that had suffered damage, and inflicting as much damage as possible to the fresher ships. Almost a hundred ships were lost before the fleet managed to enter firing range, and when they did, they opened up on the Federation fleet and the Earth's Defense Grid. Admiral Dane watched as the two fleets finally engaged each other on relatively equal ground, his ship shaking from the impact of an energy blast. "Shields down to ninety-six percent," Lieutenant Commander Bly called out. Admiral Dane was calm, though. He knew that it was soon going to degenerate into a melee. He just hoped that the Federation fleet had suffered enough damage to allow his fleet a fighting chance, or Cyrus was found and killed before it was too late.

Back in Goldenrod City, on Earth, Cyrus stood inside his makeshift command center, waiting anxiously for the gunship that would carry him and the rest of the Team Galactic Executives to the Sinjoh Ruins, and its escort, and decoys, to arrive. As they were waiting, they were already looking over reports of Earth military forces, along with the Galactic Federation in Exile, sending troops into Goldenrod City in an attempt to retake the city. The perimeter defenses were already suffering damage and the primary routes into the city had since been captured by the Federation in Exile soldiers. "Come on," he said apprehensively. "Where is that freaking gunship?"

One of the soldiers, a Team Galactic soldier dressed in Galactic Federation Army Trooper power armor turned and answered, "It's coming in now, sir. And three starfighters from the Star Fox Team are escorting it. There are seven other gunships of the exact same design and markings following it, too."

"How long until they arrive?" Cyrus demanded.

"Two minutes," the soldier responded.

The two minutes that Cyrus and the others had to wait was quite anxious, for the map of the battle inside Goldenrod City indicated that the Federation forces were getting slaughtered by their Earth and Galactic Federation in Exile counterparts. Eventually, they saw the gunships coming in from off the ocean, to the west. The gunships looked like boxes with wings and cockpits. They were armed with two missile launchers, several weapons emplacements that were mounted just below the side doors to the ships, along with two forward firing energy cannons and a rear-mounted energy turret for defense against close-range aerial threats. They came in quickly, flying low so as to avoid being detected by surface scanners. Three Arwings and an entire wing of Epées came along with the eight gunships. Once the gunships landed, Cyrus and Team Galactic boarded the lead gunship, dubbed _Gunship One_ once he and the other Team Galactic Executives boarded. Several other troops boarded the other gunships in order to maintain the illusion that they may have been holding the Chairman of the Galactic Federation. Once he was onboard, Cyrus commanded, "Take us to the Sinjoh Ruins as quickly as possible!"

"Yes, sir," the pilot relayed back to the Chairman. The gunship then took off, along with the others and once the ships had taken off, they rocketed in eight different directions, with many of the Epées following the other gunships, while Star Fox and a dozen remaining Epées flew escort for _Gunship One_. It was Cyrus's hope that the other gunships would lead away any pursuit, but he was not concerned should they not take the bait. He fingered the Arceus trophies in his pocket and grinned. If all else failed, he could still use them to deal with his enemies.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21:

Inside the basement of Mount Coronet, Samus made her way back to the ruined elevator that had been destroyed by Mother Brain's Laser Brain attack during the battle. However, the shaft still seemed to be intact, which led her to use her Screw Attack to ascend the shaft, breaking through any of the wreckage that blocked the shaft. She made her way to the top quickly made her way to the western exit of the mountain, not stopping to see the damage that had been done to the ground floor. It was fortunate that she had told her parents to evacuate the mountain, for the ceiling had collapsed in several places, littering the ground with debris. In addition, both exits to the mountain had been blocked. She went over to the western exit and scanned the debris to see if there was any trace of organic material, or even any biosigns. She found none, along with finding no traces of biosigns or organic material among the stones, or close to them on either side. Feeling that it was safe to blast away the debris, she switched to her Power Beam and charged a shot. Once the shot was charged, she fired at the center of the mass of fallen stones. The orange blast of energy shot forth from her arm cannon and collided with the stones, vaporizing them and blowing a path out of the mountain. Samus charged forward, hoping that her parents were okay.

Upon emerging from the mountain, she saw her parents staring down a Landmaster tank, whose energy cannon was pointed straight at them. They also pointed their sword and staff at them, but the glow on the ends of the weapons was much fainter than she had remembered, indicating that their power was waning. Seeing their daughter emerge from the mountain, they raised their hands to her and yelled, "Get back! The driver of this tank is after you!"

Samus moved to one side, so as to get the tank to swivel its turret towards her. Just as she expected, the tank did so, and she prepared her arm cannon, switching to her Wave Beam, knowing that it might be able to affect the tank's systems. What she did not want to see, though, were her parents, matching her moves and standing in front of her, forcing the tank to shoot through them to get to Samus. "Step aside," came the voice of the tank's pilot, who Samus recognized as belonging to Fox McCloud. "It's Samus we want, not you."

"If you want our daughter, you'll have to go through us!" Samus's mother declared, just as her husband joined her and pointed his staff at the tank.

"No!" Samus cried. "It's _me_ he wants. Let me fight him. I can win this."

"Move aside," Fox insisted. "I don't want to go through you to get at Samus, but I will if I have to. She's a dangerous criminal."

"She just beat the Space Pirates, who were being aided by the so-called Galactic Federation," Rodney retaliated. "I know! Virginia and I were once Techno Lords serving the N'Kren and the Galactic Federation until Cyrus gave us to the Space Pirates, who turned us into their slaves, taking over our minds and bodies."

"So _you_ were the ones that destroyed the N'Kren Techno Lord squad that was sent to destroy the Pirates," Fox said, his accusing tone still able to be carried through the tank's speakers.

He went to power his Landmaster's cannon when the voice of Krystal came over the radio and said, "Fox, what are you doing? Those are civilians!"

"They were also responsible for the deaths of a dozen Techno Knights and a Technoble," Fox retorted. "In addition, they're standing against us in our quest to defeat Samus and protect assist the Galactic Federation."

"The Galactic Federation is the organization trying to free the Earth!" both Rodney and Virginia roared. "The so-called Galactic Federation under Cyrus's command is nothing more than an empire that merely _calls_ itself the Galactic Federation. The Federation died when Keaton was assassinated. The Federation in Exile is merely the doctor trying to resuscitate the dead Federation, while the current 'Federation' is doing its best to stop the doctor and destroy the corpse."

Fox then looked out at them and said, "Forgive me, Samus. But you area an enemy, and so are they!" With that, he fired his tank cannon at the trio, but Samus jumped out in front of her parents and Screw Attacked, producing a golden energy shield over her body. The low to high-pitched whine of the Landmaster's blaster sounded, forcing Rodney and Virginia to cover their ears as they retreated to the base of Mount Coronet. The blast of energy was deflected by Samus's Screw Attack shields and sent into the sky. She uncurled herself from her Screw Attack and activated her Scan Visor, so as to scan the tank. Her scan came back, _Vehicle – Landmaster tank. This tank is specially designed by the Star Fox Team for ground-based combat purposes. It is equipped with two hover jets, allowing it to barrel roll on the ground in order to evade fire, plus fly into the air and hover for a short time. This specific variant is the anti-aircraft variant, though it carries a stronger, yet slower firing, cannon for its main weapon and cannot rapid fire, charge its cannon in order to fire a Homing Charged Laser, or fire Smart Bombs, making its abilities against enemy aircraft suspect at best. In addition to its offensive weaponry, the Landmaster can also barrel roll to produce a shield against incoming fire, something the base Star Fox variant is incapable of_.

She charged her Wave Beam, not daring to risk using a Power Missile so close to her parents, and took aim at the tank. Before firing, though, she gave Fox a chance to avoid a fight. "Leave now, Fox," she directed. "I don't want to fight you, even though I will if I must."

"Surrender, Samus," Fox countered. "Surrender or I _will_ open fire, regardless of where your parents are."

Samus merely gritted her teeth. "I've heard so many things about the Star Fox Team," she began harshly. "You were heroes when Andross initiated the Lylat Wars, when he returned and threatened Sauria, when the Aparoids attacked, and even during the recent Anglar Blitz. You have been looked up to as models of what it means to be heroes. Are you willing to throw that all away by becoming villains by serving Cyrus no matter what evidence there is to show that he is a criminal? And even if there's no evidence to the fact that _he_ is evil, look at the Federation military commanders. Look at the other bounty hunters and mercenaries that he has used. Since when have soldiers like Kanden, Trace, or Pigma Dengar ever been good?"

"Pigma?" Fox blurted.

Samus nodded. "Yes, Fox. Pigma!" she answered harshly. "The one who betrayed your father to Andross. Are you so willing to serve one who hired _him_ as a soldier?"

That cut straight to Fox's heart. While he had encountered his father a couple of times since his supposed death, the most notable time being when he escaped Venom after beating Andross for the first time. Still, he had sworn to serve Peppy and he would not betray his friend, and veteran of both Star Fox teams, and responded, "As much as I may question the orders of my friend, Peppy, I cannot go against his orders right now." With that, he swiveled his cannon towards Samus as she moved again to get her parents out of the line of fire. Once she was clear of them, she charged her Wave Beam, but let Fox take the first shot, which he did.

Fox unleashed a blue blast of energy towards Samus, but she had been running for long enough that just before he had fired, she had activated her Speed Booster. She rocketed away from the blast, causing it to plow through an afterimage of the bounty hunter. She stopped a few dozen meters away and unleashed a trio of undulating, purple electrical pulses upon Fox's Landmaster. Fox barrel rolled away from the blast, producing a shield over the tank, but the blast continued to track the tank. When it arrived, the three purple pulses phased through the barrel roll shield and hit the tank directly, inflicting shield damage to the tank. However, only a sliver of the Landmaser's shield bar was depleted. Much like the Arwing, this tank had heavy combat shields that allowed it to survive a great deal of punishment. Still, she had weapons that would be effective; she merely had to get her parents a safe distance away.

She quickly began to run towards the Landmaster once more, prompting Fox to smile as he unleashed blast after blast at her. She managed to dodge his aim for each blast as she approached him. After a couple of seconds, her Speed Booster activated once more and she Shinesparked to the Landmaster, colliding with it and inflicting far more damage than she had anticipated she would. It was as if the Landmaster had been hit by a Homing Charged Shot from an Arwing. She now began to wonder if it would be safe for her to deploy a Power Bomb against his tank, for fear that the tank would not be able to absorb the blast and keep it from spreading. Fox retaliated by leveling his cannon on her and firing a point blank blast on her. Just as she had collided with his tank, she jumped into a Screw Attack and took the blast head on. The energy blast struck her shields and, while it did not inflict any damage to her suit or shields, it did push her back. She soon uncurled herself and landed on the ground, skidding to a halt.

Fox noticed the damage that Samus's Shinespark had caused the tank and, noticing that Krystal was not making a move to assist him in the battle, said, "Krystal, what are you doing? I could use some help here."

The line was silent for several moments, during which Fox expected Samus to fire on him, but she did not, nor did she run to activate her Speed Booster. If anything, she was ushering her parents a safe distance away from the fight. He then realized that she was preparing to use a Power Bomb on his tank if that was what was necessary. He called back up to her and said, "Krystal, Samus has weaponry that can damage a Landmaster! I need help."

Still, Krystal did not answer. "What is she doing?" Fox wondered aloud. "Is her radio down? Why won't she engage Samus?" He did not stop to think that Krystal was having second thoughts about the recent events and her role in the Star Fox Team. During the Aparoid Invasion and the Anglar Blitz, she had fought alongside Fox and had known that the enemy was evil. Right now, though, she was no longer so certain that the Earth and the Galactic Federation in Exile were the evil ones. She was becoming suspicious that it was _Cyrus_ and the _Galactic Federation_ that had fallen. And if her suspicions were correct, then they had also brought down the N'Kren, Ylla, and Corneria as well. Corneria's entry into the war on the side of the Galactic Federation was already an unpopular move with the general public. Even former General Pepper, who had relieved himself of command due to an illness and the injuries that he had sustained during the Aparoid Invasion and was still recovering from, had spoken out against Peppy's use of Cornerian military forces to assist the Federation.

When he decided that it was unlikely that he would get any help from Krystal, he pointed his cannon towards Samus and her parents. Samus, seeing this, charged her Light Beam and prepared to launch a Light Missile, hoping that its base destructive ability would cause Fox to think twice before firing, if not interrupt the firing process. "Go!" she told her parents as she locked onto the tank. Her parents ran, knowing that they would do more harm than good by standing with Samus against the tank and distract her with their presence. She then focused on the tank. She knew that she could approach and lay a Power Bomb underneath the tank to destroy it upon its detonation, but she was concerned that even if she approached with her Screw Attack, she would have to curl into her Morph Ball form to get underneath the tank, which would give it a chance to open fire. While she did not doubt that her suit could survive a single shot from a Landmaster, she did not want to have to lose the energy since she had a feeling that she would need all the shield energy and ammunition she could get when she went to stop Cyrus.

As she was about to engage Fox, though, she noticed a glow in the cannon as a stream of energy was about to be released. She dove to the side as Fox unleashed the blue energy blast, barely missing Samus by less than two inches. She could hear the air sizzle as the energy blast rocketed past her and struck the side of the mountain not too far away. The blast struck precariously close to her parents, who were barely far enough away from its point of impact to avoid injury. Her eyes flashed as she glared at the tank, preparing to curl into her Morph Ball form to attack. He then swiveled the cannon towards Samus and prepared to fire again. Before he could get an accurate bead on her, though, Samus used her Boost Ball to roll to the tank. He still fired his energy blast, but the blast flew over her head and sailed past her. She rolled underneath the tank and dropped a Power Bomb. Quickly rolling out from underneath the undercarriage of the tank, she transformed back to normal and fled from the tank, making sure to stand at least thirty meters away. After three seconds, the Power Bomb detonated and engulfed Fox's Landmaster in its vaporization field. Samus watched her HUD as the detonation drained the Landmaster of its shields and inflicted significant damage to the armor of the tank. By the time the explosion had dissipated, the Landmaster's outer hull was warped and melted in numerous areas, along with both the boost engines and the hover engines having been blown out. However, the tank was still operational, albeit at a weakened level, and it was also likely that a single missile or even a Charged Plasma Beam shot would be enough to penetrate the hull and destroy it. Samus switched to her Plasma Beam and leveled her arm cannon at the tank, charging the beam but not firing just yet. Since she had known of Fox before he started working with the corrupted Galactic Federation, she did not want to kill him unless she had no other choice.

Inside the cockpit of the Landmaster, Fox stared at the now blank screen in utter shock. The shields had been depleted and the armor had been severely weakened, and breached in numerous areas. The boost engines and hover engines were non-functional and the tank's tires had been flattened, rendering the tank practically immobile. While the cannon was still operating at ninety percent power, it was of small comfort since he knew that Samus's weaponry was more than powerful enough to destroy the Landmaster in its current, crippled state.

Things were about to get a lot worse for the Cornerian fox, though, for he heard the roar of a shuttle's engines coming from above. Checking his sensors, he made seven new contacts, one of them being the size of a shuttle, at least. Looking up, he saw a single Federation Heavy Assault Shuttle, along with two atmospheric Assault Skiffs and six Hellcat-class atmospheric fighters with the capacity for space travel for a short period of time. The Hellcats, named after an old Earth World War II fighter, were aerodynamic fighters that resembled Earth fighters of the early to mid-twenty-first century. They were multi-role fighters and were quite capable of engaging enemy starfighters and emerging victoriously. They hovered around the Heavy Assault Shuttle and locked onto the Landmaster Tank, just as the shuttle and the two skiffs did. Soon, a voice emanated from the shuttle and said, "This is General Hastings, Chairman of the Earth's Joint Chiefs of Staff. You are surrounded, your tank is crippled, and you seem to be without any backup. Surrender now, or face destruction."

As much as Fox wanted to continue fighting, he knew that he did not have a chance against Samus. If he could not take her out in one hit, he knew that he would never be able to take down any of his current opponents. The fighters were too maneuverable for him to hit, even if his tank were undamaged, Samus was too strong for a single energy blast to kill anyway, and in his current state, a single hit from one of her stronger beam weapons, or a missile would kill him; and the Heavy Assault Shuttle would maul him if it decided to engage him in any kind of battle, in almost any circumstance where both sides could bring their power to bear.

Seeing no other choice, he told Krystal, "Krystal, it's me, Fox. I need your help now! I can't go on fighting. You have to pick up the battle, now."

After a moment of silence, Krystal's voice came in over the radio, saying, "I'm sorry Fox. I can't do that."

That answer caught Fox off guard. "What?" he blurted. He then took a couple of deep breaths before talking with her so he would not blast her verbally for this act of betrayal. "Why can't you help out down here? You're in an Arwing with twin laser cannons, two Smart Bombs, why can't you help out down here? A single Smart Bomb and Samus is dead, and you are more than strong enough to deal with the atmospheric fighters and the shuttle."

"You don't understand, Fox," Krystal explained. "I can't do this because it's wrong."

"What do you mean?" Fox retorted interrogatively.

"Are you listening to yourself?" Krystal asked, her voice demonstrating her utter disbelief in how out of character Fox seemed at the moment. "Have our recent difficulties against Star Wolf, and the orders we were told to carry out in the taking of Earth, damaged your ego so much that you can't distinguish good from evil? You're ordering me to launch a bomb that might not only kill you, but also two innocent people and a warrior who has only ever been known to fight for justice and peace!"

"The two humans with Samus are Space Pirate Techno Lords! They slaughtered a force of N'Kren Techno Knights, and the army leader of the N'Kren military forces assisting the Federation!"

"_Were_ Space Pirate Techno Lords," Krystal corrected loudly. "I've scanned them already; Samus cured them of their conditioning and the controls that were placed on them. And from the looks of things, she has also destroyed the Space Pirate presence in the mountain, and likely did much more, for my sensors indicated that the Space Pirates planted a bomb that could have destroyed this planet had it gone off!" She was then silent for a few seconds before asking, "Why do you insist on fighting in a conflict that, in reality, we know very little about? What have we been told? Earth and a few other worlds have defected from the Galactic Federation and called themselves the Galactic Federation in Exile. The Chozo and Luminoth, two elder races that have close ties with the Galactic Federation, allied with _them_, rather than with the Federation proper. We've been told by Cyrus and Federation diplomats, politicians and military leaders that we're fighting for the future and that Earth is being selfish and must be reclaimed, no matter the cost, because it will allow Cyrus to destroy an enemy we have not heard from for centuries and is either greatly weakened or nonexistent. But look at what we have been ordered to do! We've been told to stand by and watch as Federation fleets bombard civilian worlds that support the Galactic Federation in Exile. We assist in the attempts to wipe out the remaining Chozo and later, the Luminoth.

"Now look at what the supposed 'enemy' has done, instead. It has performed acts of charity, regardless of who requested assistance. Federation ships have been saved from Space Pirate attack by Federation in Exile ships and 'mercenary' soldiers, most notably, Samus, and also _Star Wolf_. Since when has Star Wolf been the pinnacle of compassion? Us? We have stood by and done nothing while the Galactic Federation has acted like the forces of Andross during the Lylat Wars! We must rethink our allegiance to Cyrus and the Galactic Federation, too. If we what are we? Are we like Lylat Wars Star Wolf, who were likely run by Andrew an Pigma; Andross's nephew and a traitor to the original Star Fox Team, respectively?"

Fox considered what Krystal had been saying. Eventually, he responded, "I know where you're coming from, Krystal, but I cannot go against Peppy. When we agreed to help Peppy, we took an oath to serve Corneria and its allies. If we betray that oath, then we betray everything that this team was founded on. And the fact is that there _is_ a dangerous enemy out there that we have an opportunity to destroy before it becomes a significant threat to the rest of the galaxy."

"But if the Federation in Exile is to be believed, then the way to destroy them would sacrifice the Earth, and over six billion humans, as well as the entirety of two other sentient species that are indigenous to that world! And given what I have seen, and who is fighting for the Federation in Exile, I think that they are telling the truth, or at least believe that they are. Shouldn't we at least investigate the claims made by the Federation? I mean, look! There was always more than enough circumstantial evidence to suggest that the Federation was always the aggressor, especially since before Elric had used refugee ships to infiltrate Earth, Earth had opened its borders to refugees of Daiban."

"I know," Fox replied. "The fact still is that we cannot simply abandon the Galactic Federation, or our oath to Corneria because of a belief that the current Federation leadership _might_ be lying to us."

"Then you would have us abandon our morals and fight for someone who may be even worse than Andross?" Krystal asked harshly.

"Look, we can argue about this later!" Fox cried. "Right now, I need your help against Samus and the Earth forces down here! I can't win this fight alone."

"Then you won't win it at all," Krystal said in a determined, yet melancholy voice. "I'm sorry Fox, but I can no longer be a part of the Star Fox Team, not as long as you or Peppy are in command, and not as long as you fight for a corrupt Galactic Federation. The Star Fox Team I joined, and its leader that I loved, fought for peace and justice. Now, we're no better than Star Wolf when Andrew and Pigma were secretly in charge of that team; and, like you still are, I was blind to it for far too long," she said harshly. Pausing for a moment, she then sighed, "I should have done this a long time ago." With that, she tilted her Arwing down at Fox's Landmaster. "Surrender now, Fox. Show me that the Fox McCloud that I used to know, and love, still exists somewhere in there."

Fox looked up and saw her Arwing pointing its laser cannons towards his crippled tank. He then saw Samus leveling her arm cannon towards him, as well, along with the other fighters and the Heavy Assault Shuttle pointed towards his dying tank. He tried to get a signal through to Peppy and tell him that they would have company, for with Krystal's defection, the Federation in Exile would almost certainly learn of Cyrus's location. Eventually, he realized that he had lost and he sighed, "Very well." Opening a channel to the Federation craft, he declared, "This is Fox McCloud of the Star Fox Team. I surrender."

He powered down the tank, causing it to stop smoking, and opened the primary access hatch. He stepped up and out of the tank. He jumped to the ground, Samus leveling her arm cannon at him. As soon as he had stepped on the ground, he knelt down, placing his hands over his head. Samus approached and took his blaster out of the holster on his right hip. She soon felt a gust of wind as the Heavy Assault Shuttle landed not too far away. Just after it had landed, the boarding ramp lowered and General Hastings came out, being escorted by four Galactic Federation in Exile Marines. Just then, a squad of Marines rushed down the ramp to secure the area. The general approached Samus and, seeing that the situation was under control, he looked over to her and said, "It's good to see that you're okay. Your report?"

Samus handed him Fox's blaster and then gave a short report on her activities. "Sir, when I arrived, I was engaged by Star Fox, but managed to evade them. As for the Space Pirates and the Techno Knight force that was attacked, there were no survivors. From what I can gather, the entirety of the Space Pirate remnant was present in Mount Coronet. I engaged them, managing to kill Kraid, and Mother Brain, while I at the very least, severely wounded, and possibly killed, for a time, Ridley. I also managed to destroy the Techno Lord suits of armor worn by my parents and also managed to reverse the brainwashing and programming that they had undergone. All the same, I would not mind having them checked out, just to make sure that there aren't any residual effects of losing their suits of armor and/or having the programming being neutralized."

"We have no problem with that," both of her parents replied, coming up from behind.

"Good," General Hastings said. He then got out his communicator and called in an ambulance with a field medical station so they could perform the scans under the supervision of the soldiers.

After the call was made, General Hastings turned back to Samus and asked, "Anything else to report?"

Samus nodded. "The Space Pirates had a planet killer bomb planted in the mountain's basement. I managed to get to it and teleport it away before it exploded."

Hastings smiled knowingly. "So _that's_ the reason the Federation lost more than a third of their fleet in almost an instant."

"How goes the space battle?" the bounty hunter asked.

"Much better, ever since you teleported that bomb to the center of the fleet," Hastings responded. We're still outnumbered over two-to-one in space, but the fact that most of the N'Kren and Ylla ships are destroyed or heavily damaged means that the stronger enemy ships are gone, leaving the Chozo and Luminoth fleets to perform mop up on them and then focus on the Federation fleet."

"Wait!" Fox called. "What about the _Great Fox Two_?"

Turning to Fox, General Hastings answered, "From the reports we've received, the _Great Fox Two_ was severely damaged by the explosion, but not destroyed. We don't know the condition of its crew, though."

"Has there been any sign of Cyrus?" Samus asked the general.

"Nothing confirmed," Hastings answered. "However, we heard that he was holed up on the shores of Goldenrod City, but eight gunships with identical markings had recently arrived, but have since taken off, heading in eight different directions."

It was then that the general's communicator beeped. He activated it and the voice of Krystal echoed through it. "Sir, I could not help but overhear your conversation and think that I have information pertinent to your search for Cyrus."

"Krystal, what are you doing? Maintain radio silence!" Fox screamed as he heard her voice talking to the human general.

Krystal ignored him and continued, "After we were shot down by Samus in our initial engagement, Fox received a transmission from Cyrus, asking for the Star Fox Team to escort him to his goal. Wanting to deal with Samus, Fox stayed behind, and I remained behind to cover him since he was in the Landmaster, but Falco and Slippy went to cover Cyrus. Chances are that they'll be with the real gunship holding him. In addition, Peppy will also be joining them." She then sent a transmission to the shuttle and said, "I am giving you the personal data on the Arwings of the rest of the Star Fox Team. With these, you should be able to track them. Hurry. If Cyrus is moving right now, then that means he's found what he's looking for. While I will not fire on my former teammates, I cannot standby and do nothing. The more I think about things, the worse I feel about what Cyrus is planning."

"Thank you, Krystal," General Hastings told her. "Your help will not be forgotten when this is all over." With that, her Arwing then pointed into the sky and she rocketed away from the scene.

Once she was away Hastings turned to Samus and said, "We need to get back onboard that shuttle so we can find Cyrus as quickly as possible."

Samus nodded and they made their way back to the shuttle just as the ambulance arrived to check up on her parents. Two Marines then looked over at him and asked, "Sir, what about Fox McCloud?"

"Take him into custody," the general replied. "Also, make sure to destroy any and all tracking devices and communicators that he has. We don't need him contacting his ship should it still be able to send down an Arwing."

"Understood, sir," the Marines replied. The general then directed two more Marines to join the first two in securing Fox. They put his hands behind his back and put binders on him. They then directed him towards one of the Assault Skiffs, which had just landed and put him onboard. The skiff then took off and headed over towards one of the prisons to drop off Fox before they rejoined the main force.

With Fox McCloud having been dealt with, General Hastings, his escort, and Samus made their way over to the Heavy Assault Shuttle. As they were approaching the shuttle, Samus noticed that the rear-mounted laser cannons still appeared to be damaged and asked, "Are the rear-mounted cannons operational yet?"

"Barely," the general answered. "They're still having difficulty swiveling and have a very limited firing arc. We could definitely use some backup."

"You've got it," Samus said as she jumped on top of the shuttle.

The general and the rest of the Marines then boarded the Heavy Assault Shuttle. Once they were onboard, the hatch closed. General Hastings went to the cockpit and activated the computer sensors. Just then, a cone activated that pointed to the south. It was relatively thin, though on the sides of the sensor screen, the target of the cone was identified as an Arwing. They were quite a distance away, being in another part of Japan. The pilot looked over at the general and said, "The Arwings are moving north, fast. We'll have to move quickly if we wish to intercept them before they reach their destination."

"Then gun it," the general told him. Opening a channel to Samus, he said, "Samus, activate your magnetic boots. It's going to be a race to the Sinjoh Ruins."

"I copy," came the reply from Samus.

The shuttle then lifted off from the ground. The six Hellcats and the Assault Skiff ascended with it and once it was over the peak of the mountain, the pilot laid in a course for the Star Fox Team, which was currently escorting Cyrus to the Sinjoh Ruins. Once the course was laid in, the ship rocketed off into the distance, hoping to reach Cyrus before he reached his destination.

Meanwhile, Cyrus sat onboard _Gunship One_, flying to the Sinjoh Ruins as quickly as the gunship would allow. Escorting his gunship were four Epée-class interceptors, along with Falco and Slippy of Star Fox Team, and General Peppy Hare, Commander of the Cornerian Army. As they were flying, a dozen Rapier-class starfighters arrived. As they arrived, the pilot of _Gunship One_ opened a channel to the squadron and demanded, "Unidentified Rapier squadron, identify yourselves immediately!"

"This is Alpha Squadron of Aggression Wing. We're here to assist you."

"We don't need your help. We are on a mission and we don't need to risk being discovered."

"I think you do," Alpha Leader replied. "Can you take the risk that you've been compromised? After all, the Star Fox team was beaten by a human bounty hunter piloting a single Wolfen II. This bounty hunter was also not famous for her piloting ability, but her fighting ability on the ground."

"How did you learn of that?" the pilot demanded. Cyrus put his hand to his head in disgust. _Way to let a potential infiltrator know that the Star Fox Team is not so unbeatable, even if you're not Star Wolf_, he thought. He began fingering the two Arceus trophies in his pocket once more. He did not want to have to use them so quickly, but he felt that if he had no other choice, than he would do so.

"It was not all that hard," Alpha Leader said, responding to the gunship pilot's question. "It was clear by the radio chatter that had been picked up, and by the fact that only half of the Star Fox Team, and a former member, are present here in their old, yet superior, Arwings. Now, are you gonna let us help you, or are we gonna have to leave you all alone should Earth's military attack, or the leaders of the Pokémon League intercept you?"

The pilot looked back at Cyrus, indicating that he wanted the Chairman to weigh in on the subject. Cyrus considered the possibility that the Rapiers could be Federation in Exile infiltrators. On the other hand, he only had four Epées and three Arwings, which had recently been shown to not be all that much better than the Federation in Exile starfighters they were supposed to be slaughtering. On more than one occasion, the Star Fox Team had actually been driven off of attacks on military convoys or on capture or retrieval missions by mere squadrons of Federation Katanas and Daggers. While the Arwings were vastly superior to anything the Cornerian or Venomian armies had come up with, save for the Wolfens, the difference between the Arwings and Federation starfighters was far less pronounced, and the Federation starfighters actually outperformed the Arwing in many key areas. The only real edge the Arwing had over the Federation fighters was in its general firepower, and only when they were loaded with a maximum payload of Smart Bombs or even Nova Bombs, and their shields. In everything else, the two groups were relatively equal or the Federation in Exile fighters actually had an edge. Arwings were primarily close-range fighters, which was great for close support and dealing with enemy bombers, while Federation in Exile and Earth starfighters were designed to engage enemy starfighters at long range. While he did not like bringing in new arrivals, if they were loyal, then they could help ward off any attack on his gunship, and allow him to save his Arceus trophies for either dealing with any unwelcome surprises at the Sinjoh Ruins, and his final objective.

Eventually, Cyrus said, "Let them join."

The pilot then opened a channel to the newly arrived Rapiers and said, "It's a go, guys. You're welcome to join us."

"Thanks," Alpha Leader replied. "You won't regret it."

_I'd better not_, Cyrus thought darkly.

The group continued making their way towards the Sinjoh Ruins, Cyrus looking out the window as the clouds, mountains and trees below them zipped by. The gunship had not made supersonic speeds, something that concerned him since he was hoping to arrive as quickly as possible, but he hoped that the pilot had not accelerated to full speed in order to keep them from lighting up anyone else's sensors. He soon noticed the craft decelerate and the pilot reported back to him, "Sir, we are approaching the Sinjoh Ruins. ETA: five minutes."

"Good," Cyrus said, a little more harshly than he had intended. _Come on_, he thought. He knew that this ship could go faster. The last thing he wanted was for any enemy force to catch up because the pilot was going too slowly. He looked out and saw that the fighters and Noticing that the Star Fox Team had spread itself too thin, in an attempt to cover not only the gunship, but also the fighters that were also flying cover for the gunship. He was uneasy about Peppy splitting up the squadron, but he felt that the Cornerian Rabbit knew what he was doing. After a few moments, however, his worst fears were confirmed when one of the Epées reported, "Sir, someone's locking onto, arrrgh…" the radio then went silent as he heard a loud explosion. Looking outside, he saw four Earth Hellcats flying towards them. A missile was on hot approach to the gunship, but was intercepted by another Epée, who interposed himself between the missile and the gunship. The missile struck the fighter and annihilated it, ejecting debris that had one been the fighter in all directions. "Damn," Cyrus swore. _We've been spotted_.

The Star Fox Team then went to break away from the squadron and take on the Hellcats that were currently targeting the rest of the escort. Cyrus got out his hand radio and flipped it open. Signaling the Star Fox Team, he yelled, "No, Peppy! Have your squad form up and cover us. The Hellcats _want_ you to go after them!"

"I copy," Peppy replied. The fighters then formed up around the gunship as the surviving Epées went to engage the four Hellcats. Cyrus knew that despite the numerical advantage the Epées had against the Hellcats, that they were not guaranteed to win the fight. Seeing the Hellcats get in the first missile volley, and the Epées' countermeasures only have minimal success in confusing the missiles of the Hellcats, he knew that he had to get out of here as quickly as possible.

He yelled over to the pilot, "Put this thing up to full throttle now! Our plan has been discovered; we have to get to the ruins as quickly as possible!" Seeing that there was no point in subtlety, and that shielding everyone from knowing his history with Team Galactic was no longer necessary, he then activated his hand radio and opened a channel to all Federation and Team Galactic forces and said, "This is Cyrus, Chairman of the Galactic Federation and leader of Team Galactic. All Federation and Team Galactic forces in the Johto Region are to converge on the source of my signal immediately and provide backup for us! We've been discovered and need cover. Also, keep your eyes out for any Earth or Galactic Federation in Exile fighters, transports, shuttles, or atmosphere-capable capital ships. If any of them are coming to us, target and destroy them immediately!"

He felt the gunship accelerate as he saw a mountain dead ahead. He knew that it would not be long before he arrived. "There it is!" Cyrus exclaimed. The rest of Team Galactic in the gunship looked out the view port and saw the mountain.

"Yes," Venus exclaimed, nodding. "This is the location of the Sinjoh Ruins. It should be close to the peak of the mountain, much like Spear Pillar was for Mount Coronet."

Cyrus's eyes focused on the mountain as they approached. He was so close to accomplishing his dreams. He would let nothing stand in his way. He opened a channel Star Fox the other fighters, and said, "We're close, Peppy. Stay far enough back to cover us. Rapiers get out in front to provide a forward fighter screen."

"We copy," came the chorus of affirmatives.

"We'll provide protection while you get to your destination," Peppy said. "Good luck."

"Thanks," Cyrus replied with a smirk.

Just as Peppy had finished his statement, Peppy noticed a lock-on warning, which was followed by a scarlet ball of energy. He performed a barrel roll, but the ball of energy continued to approach, though the lock was broken. The ball of energy flashed past Peppy's cockpit, but in an unfortunate turn of events, it detonated only a few meters in front of his Arwing. The detonation inflicted shield damage to the ship as an all too familiar voice came in over the comm, saying gravely, "Can't let you do that, Star Fox." He instantly recognized it as belonging to Wolf O'Donnell, a humanoid Cornerian Wolf. He also remembered that those were the same words that Wolf had spoken in the first engagement between Star Fox and Star Wolf during the Lylat Wars.

"Cyrus is our target and we have orders to take him and his cohort out," came the voice of Leon Powalski, a green humanoid Chameleon.

"Finally, at the end of everything, you shall meet my rose…and your final destruction," came the voice of Panther Caroso, a humanoid Cornerian Panther with black fur.

Peppy and the other members of Star Fox looked behind them and saw a trio of ships that had red bodies, with a long, fang-like cockpit and nose, with four white wings jutting out from the body in an X formation, giving the ships a passing resemblance to X-Wings from the Star Wars movies.

"Aw man," Falco complained. "It's Star Wolf. Why now?"

"Don't get distracted," Peppy told him. "We have to cover the gunship."

A few scarlet laser bolts then struck the rear of his fighter, taking his shield down even further. "Peppy!" Slippy cried, seeing Wolf go after him. Slippy fired a few emerald green laser blasts at Wolf, who spun into a barrel roll, deflecting the first few blasts before he suffered shield damage from the later blasts. He then performed a loop to get behind Slippy, who continued to cover the shuttle. This, however, gave Peppy a chance to perform an Immelmann turn and engage Wolf and keep him away from Slippy. Peppy fired on Wolf, who barrel rolled to deflect the fire, prompting Wolf to turn his fighter toward Peppy. The two then exchanged fire, each receiving equal amounts of damage, though Wolf emerged less damaged due to the earlier damage that Peppy had suffered.

As for Slippy, though, he was quickly engaged by Panther, forcing him away from the shuttle, while Leon and Falco engaged in a dogfight against one another. Peppy, who was doing his best to shoot down Wolf, opened a channel to the gunship and the other fighters, telling them, "Keep going! We'll keep Star Wolf occupied here!"

He did not have to tell Cyrus twice, for Cyrus then told the pilot, "You heard him, gun it!" The ship then accelerated towards the mountain, leaving Star Fox to deal with Star Wolf. Six Rapiers also broke off from the gunship and its escort in order to help out Star Fox. Cyrus did not want to waste time calling them back, but he grimaced as they left. If they survived the battle, he would make sure to punish them for their insubordination. He did not dwell on it, though, as the gunship approached the mountain.

As they got closer to the mountain snow began to fall. This caused Cyrus to become uneasy, for it would be difficult for anyone to spot an approaching enemy with their eyes and, while sensors would be able to spot many types of approaching enemy craft, if said craft were using stealth technology, then sensors would not be a reliable tool for detecting enemy ships. He looked over at Venus and told her, "Scan the surrounding area. I want to know if there are any enemies coming."

"Understood, sir," the blond Team Galactic Executive replied.

Cyrus then turned to Mercury and told him, "Release Alakazam at once. I want him assisting Venus."

"Yes, sir," Mercury replied, nodding. He then released Alakazam, who went over to Venus and assisted her in her scan. The eyes of both human and Pokémon glowed as they did their best to scan their surroundings and ascertain who, or what, stood against them.

After a few moments, it seemed as if everything was clear and Venus told Cyrus, "Sir, I am detecting…" but she paused for a split second before her glowing eyes went wide and she screamed, "Come to me now!"

Cyrus did not hesitate to rush to Venus as the pilots informed them, "Sir, there's a cabin in a crevice below. It's too narrow to…" but he never got a chance to finish before a reddish-orange beam erupted from somewhere in the distance. The copilot noticed the beam and gave a cry as it washed over one of the Rapiers, disintegrating it. He then looked back and saw that the passengers onboard the ship had vanished. He looked forward once more just soon enough to see the orange-red beam strike the gunship, plow through the armored cockpit and annihilate him, along with the gunship's pilot. The gunship promptly exploded in midair, the flaming wreckage of the ship falling back to the ground, where it crashed and deformed even further.

The fighters that had not been destroyed in the attack then searched for the attacker and soon spotted a Dragonite headed towards them with a young man in his mid to late twenties with spiky red hair, wearing a dark blue to almost black long-sleeved shirt and pants, along with a dark gray cape. While the fighter pilots did not know this, the new arrival would have been instantly recognized by Cyrus as being Lance, the Johto Pokémon League Champion. The fighters immediately went to engage the Pokémon and its trainer and unleashed a hail of energy fire towards them. The energy blasts went wide, though, and Lance's Dragonite retaliated with an orange sphere emerging from his mouth. The sphere approached the fighters and then split into a dozen smaller orange orbs. The orbs zeroed in on the Rapiers and struck them, annihilating the fighters with single hits. Once the short skirmish was over, he went down to the outskirts of the ruins to reinforce the other trainers that were doing their best to stop Cyrus and Team Galactic from entering the ruins.

Cyrus and the rest of Team Galactic's Executives, along with a few grunts, reappeared within sight of a cabin on the mountain. Cyrus saw a rocky wall behind the cavern, along with a path that led behind the cabin. Cyrus's eyes lit up as he spied the pass. That was it! That was the path to the Sinjoh Ruins. He was so close.

He and the others began to run when a group of trainers rushed out from the cabin in the distance and stood before them, barring their way. Cyrus instantly recognized Cynthia, with her long blond hair, blue eyes, and black clothing. Her companion, however, was not known to him. He had short bluish-black hair save for a single spike emerging from underneath his cap, which he wore backwards. He also wore a red long-sleeved shirt over a black undershirt, the neck of which was barely visible and seemed to outline the long-sleeved shirt, and black knickerbockers. Cyrus thought he recognized him from one of the dossiers that he had read on those who might resist him. He was named Ethan and was the current Indigo Pokémon League Champion. Before beginning to fight, the trainers took out small red and white balls, which seemed to inflate upon pushing the center buttons located on them, and tossed them into the air. The balls then opened to release a variety of Pokémon, many of them resembling animals from Earth, albeit with distinct differences and modifications. The most recognizable Pokémon, though, were Cynthia's Garchomp, a bipedal shark-like Pokémon with a head that resembled a Hammerhead Shark's head, a red underbelly, and shark fins on arms and on its tail. Some of Ethan's more recognized Pokémon were final evolutions of the three Johto starters: Meganium, Typhlosion, and Feraligatr. Meganium was a green sauropod-like Pokémon with pink flower petals coming out of its neck and two stamen-like protrusions coming from the nose. Each protrusion was tipped with an anther. Typhlosion had a cream-colored underside and a dark blue back, a fire collar, and a bear-like physique. It could also stand on its two hind legs, or travel on all fours. The last starter was Feraligatr. Feraligatr was a blue bipedal alligator-like Pokémon that had red spikes that looked like leaves on its head, back, and tail. In addition to the Johto starters, Ethan sent out three more Pokémon: Donphan, which was a bluish-gray elephant-like Pokémon that had a dark gray covering on its head and trunk, Espeon, a Pokémon that resembled a Fennec Fox with lavender fur, large ears, and a red gem on its forehead, and finally, an Electivire, a humanoid Pokémon with yellow fur with black stripes, five fingers on each hand, two antennae, and two black tails with red tips. The rest of the trainers also called forth a variety of Pokémon as well, though Cyrus viewed Cynthia and Ethan as the real dangers.

Cyrus turned to the others and said, "Venus, you and Mercury's Alakazam are with me. The rest of you, keep them occupied. This shouldn't take too long."

"Right," the other Team Galactic Executives answered. Venus then went to join Cyrus, along with Mercury's Alakazam. Once they did so, Venus huddled with Alakazam and Cyrus and the two of them vanished, both reappearing along the path that would lead them to the Sinjoh Ruins.

Cynthia and Ethan went to pursue Cyrus and Venus, but the rest of Team Galactic had deployed all of their Pokémon, along with two Kadabras, who teleported in front of Cynthia and deployed a barrier, preventing them from going forward. "Good work," Uranus called over to them. He then sent a blue quadruped dragon-like Pokémon with red wings called Salamance over to cover the two Kadabras. The rest of Team Galactic, and their escort then drew their own weapons and fired on the enemy Pokémon and trainers, with the Pokémon returning fire. The battle for the Sinjoh Ruins had begun.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22:

The Heavy Assault Shuttle carrying Samus, General Hastings and a platoon of Galactic Federation in Exile and Earth Marines and Army Troopers made its way to the Sinjoh Ruins, tracking the Star Fox Team, at its maximum speed. They knew that Cyrus not only had a head start on them, but that he had a shorter distance to fly than Samus and the general did as well. She stood on top of the shuttle, her magnetic boots being the only thing keeping her attached to the ship. Her superhuman reflexes and reaction times would allow her to spot and react to any threat that came upon them. So far, everything had been quiet.

Onboard the shuttle, the pilot and copilot were busy checking the sensors to make sure that the way was clear. They had been surprised to find that there was no Galactic Federation presence here. A captured Federation Heavy Assault Shuttle and six Hellcats was something that General Hastings would have expected to draw the attention of any Federation force that was in the area. So far, there had been no contacts. The copilot also continued to monitor all radio and subspace transmissions. So far, reports were indicating that the planet killer bomb had inflicted heinous casualties upon the invading Federation fleet and that the weakened fleet was having trouble advancing on the defending Earth, Federation in Exile fleet and the planet's defenses. No Federation reinforcements would be coming to reinforce the Federation lines anytime soon. On the other side of the coin, though, Cyrus had found the location of the Sinjoh Ruins and was fast approaching. While no one here knew exactly what Cyrus intended to do there, they knew that it the consequences would be disastrous if he were not stopped.

Eventually, the cone on the shuttle's sensors indicated that they were getting closer to Star Fox. The shuttle's orange cone on the sensor display began to expand. "Sir," the pilot began, "we're approaching the location of the Star Fox Team."

General Hastings looked over the copilot's shoulder and saw the Arwing emblems appear on long-range sensors. He also spotted several other ships engaging them. Judging by the new emblems that were appearing on the screen, he knew exactly who it was that was engaging Star Fox. "Looks like Star Wolf has joined the fray," he noted.

"Couldn't have come at a better time," the pilot noted. "We're detecting several more waves of Federation fighters coming in. They'll reach us before we reach the battle site."

General Hastings drew out his communicator and opened a channel to Samus, telling her, "Get ready, Samus. We've got numerous contacts coming in."

"I see them," she confirmed.

"We _do_ have a small number of air-to-air missiles," the pilot told the general. "But it won't be enough to deal with the entire assault force headed our way. And with Samus on top, the enemy'll be drawn to us like a magnet."

"I know," Hastings sighed. "But we'll need her extra firepower if we're going to get through this. Just get ready. Once those enemy fighters get within range, identify the most dangerous of the fighters and shoot them down with the air-to-air missiles we _do_ have. We'll have to let the Hellcats deal with the rest. But before we do anything, call in all the reinforcements we can muster. Without them, we won't be lasting very long, that's for sure."

"Aye, sir," the pilot responded.

General Hastings then took one of the spare weapons consoles and linked it to the twin rear-mounted cannons. He only hoped that he and Samus would be able to shoot down any fighters or missiles that got too close for comfort, for he knew that with the numbers that they would be facing, that they would not survive for long in an extended battle without help.

On top of the shuttle, Samus kept her eyes peeled for any sign of enemy fighters or heavier vehicles. She selected her Wave Beam since its electrical and energy disruptive properties would be the most useful against the Federation fighters that would be sent their way. Peering out into the distance, she spotted several squadrons of fighters approaching. Given the fact that the shuttle launched its payload of air-to-air missiles at the fighters, she suspected that they were Federation ships. The missiles erupted from the weapons ports of the shuttle and zeroed in on the fighters. Some of fighters attempted to perform evasive maneuvers in order to avoid the missiles while others unleashed scarlet bolts of energy at the incoming missile volley. A few of the missiles were taken down, but the vast majority managed to get through and struck the fighters, blowing them apart in midair. Those that survived came screaming towards the Heavy from the bow and the starboard side. While the shuttle unleashed a barrage of energy fire from its forward cannons, blowing a valley through the ranks of approaching Rapiers and Epées, Samus targeted the fighters coming in from the starboard side.

She charged her Wave Beam and targeted the lead starfighter. Once she had locked onto the fighter, she unleashed her Charged Wave Beam and a trio of purple electrical energy pulses homed in on the fighter. The fighter was unable to evade the Wave Beam and the pulses scored a direct hit on the fighter, its armor useless against the Wave Beam, which caused damage to the fighter's power systems and controls. Electricity arced across the hull of the fighter and smoke issued from the engines as various systems short-circuited and others were blown out. The now powerless fighter took an involuntary dive to the ground, where it crashed and crumpled into an unrecognizable mass of metal, the pilot unable to eject before the fighter hit the ground. Samus repeated the process numerous times, shooting down any Federation fighter that got within range of the shuttle. As for those that approached from the rear, even with the limited firing arc of the damaged twin energy cannons, they were still able to shoot down any fighter that pursued the shuttle and came within firing range.

Back onboard the shuttle, General Hastings operated the rear-mounted twin energy cannons, shooting down two more fighters that had opened fire on the shuttle. The fighters had managed to get off a couple of shots before being taken down. The shuttle shuddered under the weight of the laser blasts, but the shields were only taken down to ninety-two percent by the blasts.

As the general was shooting down enemy fighters, the shuttle's copilot kept a constant watch on sensors. They indicated that only a few kilometers ahead, the Star Fox and Star Wolf teams were duking it out in the sky, along with numerous Federation and Earth fighters entering the fray as well. One of the Wolfen's had charged a Homing Laser and unleashed it at a flight of Claymores that had headed towards an area that did not appear on sensors. The scarlet energy ball homed in on the Claymores and struck their leader, annihilating the flight leader and taking down the other fighters, searing off the wings of the enemy fighters and damaging their engines, causing them to either spin out of control as they dove to the ground, or simply have their power cut out and fall to the ground, reduced to massive deadweights, where they crashed and exploded.

The copilot turned to the pilot and said, "Take the shuttle to this area." He then pointed to the area that was blind on sensors. "I think that this is where these fabled Sinjoh Ruins are located."

The pilot looked at the area and noted, "I'm reading anything at all."

"If this place is important to Cyrus, then chances are that there's a special energy there," the copilot responded. "Also remember that the Spear Pillar had a special energy that shielded the Space Pirates from Federation sensors, too. I think that this is our destination."

They both turned to General Hastings and told him, "Sir, I think we've found the Sinjoh Ruins! There's a blind area on sensors that doesn't belong." They pointed to a small circle on sensors that showed nothing, as if nothing existed in that circle. They then continued, "Given the fact that we can see the surrounding areas, and that Mount Coronet's Spear Pillar also gave off strange energy that made it invisible to sensors, I wouldn't be surprised if the Sinjoh Ruins were also invisible to sensors, and that circle is suspicious."

"Good work," the general told them. "Take us to the blind area on sensors now!" He then opened a channel to Samus, informing her, "Samus, I think we've spotted the Sinjoh Ruins. We're going there now. Get ready."

"I am," she assured him, looking off into the distance, towards the mountain.

Meanwhile, Cyrus, Venus, and Mercury's Alakazam reappeared on a snowy path just behind the cabin. Gray rocky walls stood tall over the two on either side as they appeared a few feet above the ground and came down awkwardly. The Team Galactic leader gave a grunt as he landed on his feet. "Sorry about that," Venus apologized. "I haven't quite gotten the hang of teleportation when I'm blind to where I'm going."

Gazing around at the gray rocks and the falling snow, Cyrus scanned his surroundings. Looking down both sides of the path, he saw flashes of light in the distance, punctuated by sparks of lightning, as well as some green and red-orange energy blasts that Cyrus knew were Energy Ball and Hyper Beam, respectively. Turning to Venus, he commanded, "Release your Mr. Mime and have him and Alakazam raise a Reflect shield and Light Screen over the pass. We can't afford to let Cynthia and the defenders get through once they deal with the rest of Team Galactic."

"Understood," Venus replied, bowing to her commander. She drew out a Poké Ball and pressed its center button. The ball, which was the size of a ping pong ball, grew to a size that was a little larger than a baseball. She tossed the ball into the air and it opened. A blue blob of energy emerged from the ball and landed on the ground, forming a humanoid creature that had a white body with a red dot in the center, two thin arms, each with a five-fingered hand, connected to the main body by red spheres, two legs, also connected to the main body by red spheres, and bluish-gray frizzy hair. Mr. Mime and Alakazam soon stood behind Cyrus and Venus and held up their hands. A disturbance in the air appeared for an instant as they raised a Reflect and Light Screen shield, respectively. Cyrus grinned. Now they could accomplish their objective without interference. Cyrus only hoped that Cynthia's Lucario would either be rendered unconscious, or killed, in the fighting, for if he was still conscious while Team Galactic were still alive, he would be able to break through the barriers and allow the Pokémon Trainers to get through to face him.

Once the barriers were set, Cyrus and Venus turned around and saw a large building in the distance, about a couple hundred yards away. They ran towards the building as quickly as possible, doing their best to reach the ruins as quickly as possible. As they approached, they came across two Pokémon Trainers that had been stationed close to the ruins in order to slow down Cyrus's progress. One of them was young man of around twenty-three years of age, with short gray hair, hazel eyes, and wearing a blue and black coat and black pants. The other was a girl of about fourteen years old with brown hair, wearing a white tank top and short blue jean shorts. They both had a Poké Ball in each of their hands. Staring at Cyrus, the boy, who Cyrus recognized from newscasts as being the Pokémon Trainer Wes from the Orre region, an area in America in the Mojave Desert, declared in a loud voice, "By the order of both the Johto Pokémon League, and the Sinnoh Pokémon League, you must leave this area immediately!"

Cyrus merely laughed at the two trainers that were standing before him. He could see a hint of trepidation in the eyes of the girl, who he did not recognize. "Don't underestimate us," she warned, unsteadily, releasing two of her Pokémon, one a Tyranitar: a large bipedal dinosaur-like Pokémon with green armor that covered most of its body. There was also a diamond of dark gray hide on its stomach. It also had numerous spikes protruding from its head. The other Pokémon she released was a blue serpentine dragon-like creature with a white underbelly and a single small spike on its head called a Dragonair. She then promptly released her other Pokémon on Cyrus: Lucario, a bipedal jackal-like Pokémon that had blue skin with black forepaws, each with a single spike on the back of them, as well as black feet. He also had a furry chest with a single spike protruding from it, as well; Golem, a large, rocky Pokémon with a round body and stubby, yet strong, legs and arms; Chansey, a pink egg-like Pokémon that had tremendous healing abilities; and finally, a Hypno, a yellow-skinned human-like Pokémon with pointed ears, thick arms and legs, as well as a pendulum that it would wave around in order to hypnotize its opponents.

Wes soon released his own Pokémon. They were an Umbreon, a black feline or fox-like Pokémon with yellow markings and crimson eyes; an Espeon; a Jolteon, a yellow dog-like Pokémon with spiky fur; a Vaporeon, a blue skinned Pokémon that shared the physical traits of dolphins, fish, cats, dogs, and other animals. It had four legs, like the other Pokémon of the Eevee, their progenitor, line, but also had a fish-like tail, a white collar, and fin-like ears. In addition, he had a Flareon, a Pokémon covered in red fur with a cream-colored bushy tail, fluffy collar, and a tuft of fur on the head, each of the same cream color; and finally, a Glaceon, a light blue-skinned Pokémon that resembled the other Eevee evolutions in the boy's party, only it appeared to be wearing what looked to be an almost turquoise tuque on its head. He looked over at the girl and gave her a reassuring smile, indicating that she was powerful enough to defeat Cyrus and Venus.

The Pokémon and trainers stared at Cyrus and Venus, each and every one of them confident in their ability to defeat Cyrus and Venus. Venus drew out two Poké Balls of her own and opened them. Out came a Bronzong, a large, blue-green bell-shaped Pokémon with two arms coming out of its sides and two red eyes at the bottom of its body; and a Crobat, a purple bat-like Pokémon with two pairs of wings and a fat body and long, pointed ears. She then proceeded to deploy a Salamance, a Nidoqueen, a large, blue Pokémon with both mammalian and reptilian characteristics, a horn on her forehead, spikes running down the length of her back, a thick, strong tail, and cream covered chest plates and lower torso; and a Magnezone, a gray metallic saucer-like Pokémon with two Magnemites, round Pokémon with magnets attached to their sides that have single eyes, attached to its sides, and a yellow antenna sticking up from its center.

Once the Pokémon were deployed, Venus glanced over at Cyrus and told him, you go ahead. I'll deal with these nuisances."

Cyrus nodded and moved forward, however Wes and his Pokémon blocked the Team Galactic leader's way. They then stepped back and powered some attacks, but Venus used her telepathy to temporarily freeze Wes's Pokémon. "Go," she urged. "I can't keep them frozen for long!"

Cyrus then ran down the path while Venus glanced back at her other Pokémon and commanded, "Bronzong, cast a Reflect just behind the two trainers to cover Cyrus! Then engage Wes and Cassandra's Pokémon. I'll cover you!"

Her Pokémon obeyed and engaged Wes and Cassandra's Pokémon, doing their best to put up a good fight against their numerically superior opponents. All of Venus's Pokémon that were present, save for Nidoqueen, rose into the air in order to avoid Nidoqueen's initial attack, and prepared to unleash a volley of Hyper Beams. Nidoqueen jumped into the air and came crashing back down, causing the ground to shake and many of Wes and Cassandra's Pokémon to not only lose their balance, but also sustain heavy damage. Since Earthquake was a ground-type attack, Wes and Cassandra's Jolteon, Flareon, Tyranitar, Lucario, and Golem each suffered significant damage from the attacks and lost their footing, falling to the ground, with Jolteon and Flareon being rendered unconscious by the attack.

Venus then turned her attention to Cassandra's Hypno. Knowing that its Insomnia ability would prevent Bronzong's Hypnosis from working, she disabled it with her own telepathic ability and yelled to her Magnezone, "Use Thunder Wave on Hypno!"

Magnezone obeyed and a trio of golden electrical ring emerged from the metallic Pokémon and struck Hypno directly in the chest. Hypno fell to the ground, paralyzed and unable to move, golden sparks arcing across his body. Venus followed that up by yelling, "Salamance, use Hyper Beam on Hypno!"

Salamance obeyed and an orange blast of energy erupted from its mouth down towards the stricken Pokémon. Hypno suffered a direct hit and there was a massive explosion and a great deal of dust and debris was thrown into the air. The blast formed a crater and at the center of the crater lied Hypno, unconscious but still alive. _Three down, nine to go_, Venus thought darkly. As much as she wanted to kill Hypno in order to make sure that he did not cause any trouble later, she knew that she had to deal with Wes and Cassandra's other Pokémon before they got their act together and became a dangerous force. The good news was, though, that she was doing more than enough to distract the trainers from her boss, Cyrus. A second Earthquake dealt with Lucario and dealt significant damage to Tyranitar and Golem. That was one more Pokémon down, and two more having suffered heavy damage. A third of the opposing force was rendered unconscious, with several others having sustained heavy damage and not likely to last too much longer before going down as well. Bronzong used Hypnosis to put Cassandra's Dragonair to sleep, taking another Pokémon out of the fight, albeit temporarily, and Crobat used Confuse Ray, firing a ghostly light upon Chansey, confusing her, making it just as likely that she would attack her teammates and allies, rather than use Softboiled to heal the rest of the team. And this was all before they had even launched their first attack against her team. However, soon, the counterattack would come.

After managing to recover from the initial wave of attacks, the Pokémon that were not fainted, asleep, or confused counterattacked with tremendous force. Umbreon began the counterattack by using Confuse Ray on Bronzong, causing it to become confused and use Psychic on Nidoqueen. A purple field of energy surrounded Nidoqueen and she was promptly sent flying through the air, and into Salamance. The two Pokémon collided, knocking Salamance out of the sky, and into the wall. The two slid down the wall, where Nidoqueen came to a rest, unconscious. Salamance was still conscious, but would not remain so for long, since Nidoqueen's Poison Point ability came into play when the two collided and one of her spikes broke through Salamance's skin. The now poisoned Pokémon did his best to continue the fight, but only managed to send forth a Flamethrower attack that failed to hit anything before he succumbed to the poisoning and fainted, unable to continue the battle. That left three Pokémon for Venus, not counting Mr. Mime and the on loan Alakazam from Mercury, both of which were maintaining the barrier to ensure Cyrus's security, to Wes and Cassandra's six conscious Pokémon and two Pokémon afflicted with the sleep or confused battle condition. While she had done better than expected, Venus knew that she would need help, and also that Cyrus would need extra security. Fortunately, help was about to come.

Coming in from behind Venus, two more Team Galactic Executives, the purple-haired Jupiter, and the young, red-haired Mars, came to support her. When they arrived, Venus turned to them and suppressed a groan. She did not like Mars's immaturity, but she knew that help from a crazed Cyrus fangirl was better than no help at all. Besides, Jupiter was coming as well, so that was a little more comforting. When she saw the two, and only, Executives from the previous incarnation of Team Galactic arrive, she asked, "How's the battle going with Cynthia and the others?"

"Not good," Mars answered. "The others have lost half their Pokémon, and by lost, I mean killed, with Cynthia and Ethan only having a few Pokémon being fainted. Fortunately, though, one of those Pokémon was Lucario. The others have been able to keep Cynthia and Ethan away from it, so we've gotten a reprieve, for a time. How's the battle going here?"

"Could be worse," Venus answered as her Crobat used Toxic to badly poison Chansey, which would eventually cause her to faint, unless either Wes or Cassandra had a Full Heal, Antidote, Pecha Berry, or other cure for status ailments.

Once they stood with Venus, they deployed their remaining Pokémon. Mars sent out a Golbat, a dark blue bat-like Pokémon with a huge mouth and two wings, a Purugly, a fat gray and white furred cat-like Pokémon with big ears and a curly tail, and a Bronzong. Jupiter sent out a Bronzong, a Golbat, and a Skuntank, a purple skunk-like Pokémon with a white stripe running down its back. Venus was less than pleased, since they were each supposed to have six Pokémon, but Mars was down to Golbat and Purugly, and Venus merely had her Bronzong, Golbat, and Skuntank with her. Still, she suspected that with the new influx of Pokémon, the three of them would be able to fight the two trainers in front of them and, hopefully, manage to defeat them and aid Cyrus, should anyone manage to get past them.

Farther down the path, Cyrus continued to make his way towards the Sinjoh Ruins temple off in the distance. With no further sources of resistance to hinder his progress, he arrived at the temple in short order. Looking back, he saw the flashes of a Pokémon battle, as well as the flashes of weapons fire off in the distance. He also heard the arrival of numerous fighters and larger ships and the sounds of weapons fire pervaded the region. He looked forward once more and rushed to the temple, not wanting anyone to be able to see him with their eyes, even if their ships' sensors were blind. The temple was a relatively small building made of gray rocks, glued together with cement. He fingered the two Arceus trophies in his pocket and shuddered with excitement. He knew that the time had come. He drew out his Arceus trophies and tossed them into the air. The trophies immediately grew to be life-size representations of the Alpha Pokémon. The trophies landed in the snow a few feet away. Remembering the reports that he had read about the ruins, and the process of having an Arceus create a new Pokémon, he went up to the trophy on the left and touched it first. A glow lit up the golden base of the trophy and the figure shimmered. A light went up from the base of the trophy and washed over the figurine, rising to the top. As it did, the metal on the figure was replaced with flesh, blood, and fur as the trophy came to life. No longer did a mere figure of Arceus stand in the snow, but a real full-sized Arceus stood before Cyrus. The Team Galactic leader did not know if this Arceus was as powerful as the original Arceus, and he did not care. All he cared about was that this Pokémon would be able to create a Dialga and a Palkia.

He then went over to the Arceus on his right and touched the base of the trophy stand. Just as with the Arceus to the left, this Arceus came to life as well. Once both Arceus had come to life, he told the one on his right, "Remain here and keep guard until I call for you. Make sure that you cloak us, as well as yourself as well. If anyone comes, kill them!"

The Arceus nodded and, without saying a word, went to assume a defensive posture, looking out towards the path. To the other Arceus, he said, "Come with me."

The Arceus followed Cyrus as he made his way into the Sinjoh Ruins. He approached the building slowly. Close to the temple's entrance, four columns surrounded a path in a square formation. They looked to be ancient and appeared to be crumbling due to their age. A set of stones jutted out from the snow, giving a path to the entrance of the ruins. Looking at the sides of the temple, the Team Galactic leader and current Chairman of the Galactic Federation found several fallen stones littering the grounds. He did not worry too much about that, though, as he and his companion made their way into the temple.

The inside of the temple was made of stone with few adornments save for the line of Pokémon statues that depicted numerous legendary Pokémon that lined a path leading directly to a stage at the far end of the room, three on each side of the path. The statues depicted the legendary Pokémon Dialga, Palkia, Giratina in its Origin Forme on one side, and Azelf, Uxie, and Mesprit. All of which had a connection to Arceus. Looking ahead, he found the stage where Arceus would create the necessary Pokémon for him to fulfill his dreams. The stage looked to be made of a marble-like substance, though he suspected that it was of a material that was either not native to Earth, or one that had been created under the direction of Arceus by the humans who had worshipped him as a god.

Cyrus ascended the few steps that led onto the stage. Once he was there, he found that it was shaped like a triangle and had three circles at the end of each edge of the triangle, along with one huge circle that encompassed most of the stage. Each of the smaller circles, along with the larger circle in the center, had symbols inside. Cyrus did not view them as important, he just wanted to get this out of the way and have his dreams of a new world fulfilled. Looking out over the edges of the triangle, he found stones littering the surrounding area. He looked up at the ceiling, though, and found that it was still intact. There was no chance of anyone spotting him in here from above. He was soon joined by his animated Arceus trophy, who came to his side. Glancing over at the Arceus, he thought, muttered inaudibly, "Don't disappoint me."

He was not disappointed, for the moment that his Arceus stepped onto the stage, the three circles at the edges of each triangle started to glow white and the symbols inside each circle became much more pronounced. Cyrus's eyes lit up with wonder and anticipation. The time was coming. A new universe without spirit and emotion would soon be his. Once he was ready, he focused his gaze towards the legendary Pokémon. "Alright, it's time, Arceus. Do what you have been brought here to do!"

Without a word or a nod, the Arceus stepped past Cyrus and made its way to the center of the stage. Once it arrived, Arceus turned and faced Cyrus. The glowing circles and symbols inside them started to change color, the far symbol at the far edge of the triangular stage in front of Cyrus glowing red, while the circle to his right glowed purple, and the circle to his left glowed blue. A telepathic message soon sounded in his head, _Which Pokémon do you wish for me to create? I may only create one Pokémon. Choose wisely_. The message ended and Arceus stood in the center of the stage, waiting for Cyrus to make his choice.

Cyrus waited to see if Arceus was going to tell him anything else, but Arceus was silent. He grimaced. He had hoped that Arceus would give more information than that. He had not even told Cyrus how to go about choosing Dialga or Palkia. Arceus motioned towards the circles to Cyrus's left and right. "What do you mean?" Cyrus demanded. "Tell me what I'm supposed to do!"

"Choose," came Arceus's only response.

"How?"

Again, Arceus motioned towards the circles. Something then clicked in Cyrus's head. He figured that the circles would be the spawn point for whichever Pokémon he had chosen. Now, all he had to do was choose the right circle. According to the special reports that Venus and Uranus had obtained from the Pokémon League on the Sinjoh Ruins, the circles were color-coded so that it would be relatively easy to choose the desired Pokémon. According to the reports, Ethan had managed to obtain an Arceus from a special event and, upon taking said Arceus to the Sinjoh Ruins, had chosen Giratina in its Origin Forme, since the Griseous Orb allowed Giratina to remain in its Origin Forme. He did not know whether or not the reports were legitimate, and he did not care. All he cared about was getting Dialga and Palkia. And since the reports had said that Ethan had chosen Giratina, but not which circle had been chosen, he still did not know which circle to choose; and if he chose incorrectly, he would be unable to accomplish his dreams unless he went back to Mount Coronet, which would undoubtedly be crawling with Earth and Galactic Federation in Exile military forces.

After a few more seconds of nervous thought, Cyrus remembered the appearance of each of the Creation Trio. He remembered that Dialga was blue, while Palkia was purple. Looking at the circles to his left and right, he found that the circle on his left was blue, and the one on his right was purple. That was it! He finally had the missing piece of the puzzle. Elated, Cyrus ran to the blue circle as quickly as possible. Once in the circle, he skidded to a halt. As he stepped into the circle it began to glow. _So, you have chosen Dialga_, came the voice of Arceus in his mind.

"Yes, I choose Dialga!" Cyrus blurted.

Arceus then nodded and it began to shimmer. As it shimmered, a series of black and white Pokémon resembling letters of the English alphabet called Unown appeared and surrounded Arceus. Soon, a glowing orb of blue energy formed above Arceus and Cyrus stared in wonder at the orb, his eyes wide with delight. Soon, the orb solidified into an egg and it began to float over to the circle. Cyrus quickly stepped out of the circle and let the egg descend onto the glowing circle. It floated down to the center of the circle, where it hovered a few feet above the ground. The egg soon glowed once more and it began to break apart. A blue blob of energy emerged from the egg and took shape inside the circle, as if the Pokémon being created had been released from a Poké Ball. The energy soon solidified and the dark blue sauropod-like form of Dialga appeared, accompanied by a flash of shimmering sparks. Dialga also had some gray metallic parts, most notably a chest plate with a blue diamond over its center. Once Dialga had been created, the Unown vanished and Arceus stood in the center of the stage once more. _Dialga has been born_, Arceus declared proudly. _I cannot create any more Pokémon. You must bring another of my kind if you wish to create Palkia to go along with Dialga and claim your dreams._

Cyrus had no issues and merely called for Arceus, saying, "Come with me."

Arceus obeyed and went to join Cyrus. Once he did so, Cyrus stepped down, followed by Arceus. He then lead Arceus out of the temple and went over to the other Arceus who was standing guard. The Arceus turned to Cyrus and the Team Galactic leader said, "You're being relieved of guard duty. The time has come for you to fulfill your true purpose. Come with me."

The Arceus nodded and stood at Cyrus's right side. Once it had joined Cyrus, the Team Galactic leader and Chairman of the Galactic Federation looked over at the other Arceus and told him, "Your work here is finished. Stand guard out here and make sure that no one passes. Should anyone try to pass, kill them."

The Arceus nodded, understanding Cyrus's order. Cyrus then took the second Arceus with him as he made his way back to the temple so as to have a Palkia created for him; and, together with Dialga, he would have them create for him a new universe: one without emotion, spirit, or suffering.

Above the mountain that the ruins were located on, Samus stood on top of the Heavy Assault Shuttle as it carried her to the Sinjoh Ruins, or as close as it would be able to take her. The mountain's valleys and passes looked too small for the shuttle to be able to land, or at least be able to land intact if there were any defenses stationed around the ruins. That was the farthest thing from Samus's mind, though, as she blasted a Federation Epée-class starfighter that was making an attack run on the shuttle with her Wave Beam. A charged blast issued forth from her arm cannon and tracked the fighter and scored a direct hit on the engines. Electricity arced across the fighter and the engines immediately lost power, their glow ceasing and the fire erupting from them vanishing. The now dead starfighter fell to the ground in an arc, spinning as it fell to its death. Fortunately, the pilot managed to bail out of his doomed fighter and a chute opened well before he risked hitting the ground. With that threat being out of the way, Samus went to search for any other fighters that managed to get past either the forward energy cannons, or the rear-mounted twin energy cannons and try to launch an attack on the shuttle.

So far, she did not have much work to do, for the heavy energy cannons were clearing a path out in front of the shuttle, and her Wave Beam was giving the fighters that tried to launch attacks from the side pause as well. She soon looked ahead and saw a large number brilliant flashes of light off in the distance. She soon heard the voice of General Hastings tell her, "Samus, we're not getting clear sensor readings below, but our ventral emergency cameras spotted a number of people below us. We're also detecting a large number of dogfights in the air up ahead, as well as several engagements on the ground, too. It looks like we've reached our destination. We're searching for a place to land, now."

"Thanks for the update, sir," Samus answered as she looked over the starboard edge of the shuttle and saw a large number of mountain trails and valleys.

She scanned the area and thought that she saw the air shimmer over one of the passages for a brief second. Samus figured that the shimmering was due to a shield that had been erected to keep people out. That had to be the path to the Sinjoh Ruins. She was about to inform the general that she suspected that she had found the path and would jump from the shuttle and fall towards the path, due to the likelihood of a shield when she heard the general's voice break through once more, saying "It looks like we've run into a bit of a snag, Samus. We're detecting a shield over one of the paths. We'll try to crack the shield with our missiles…"

"Don't bother, General," Samus interjected. "I have a feeling that if that is the path that leads to the Sinjoh Ruins, that chances are that the shield won't be easily breached. Let me go down and do it."

"How will you get down there and survive if you hit the shield?" Hastings asked.

"I'll use my Screw Attack to break through," the bounty hunter answered.

"Will that work?"

"We're about to find out!" Samus told him as she jumped off of the shuttle and down towards the shimmering barrier.

She immediately curled into a Screw Attack and barreled towards the barrier that had been erected by the Alakazam and Mr. Mime that were stationed in the pass that led to the Sinjoh Ruins. She fell through the air, making her way to the barrier and after a few seconds, she made contact with both barriers. The Screw Attack instantly negated the Light Screen and shattered it, while the Reflect shield was a little more difficult to break through. As her Screw Attack struck the Reflect, it a translucent field of energy appeared like a glass window over the entire pass. As soon as she made contact with the barrier, bright cracks began to appear where she had struck. Her Screw Attack energy field began to pierce the barrier and she began to push her way through. More cracks appeared on the barrier and soon, the Reflect was broken. Large energy cracks appeared and the field broke apart, creating a sound that resembled the breaking of glass. Samus then continued her descent until she reached the ground. Once she hit the ground, she uncurled herself and took stock of her situation.

As she made her way down the pass, she felt a force shove her forward and into the ground. She checked her HUD and found that her shields were still at full strength, but the numbers were now being shown in red, indicating that something was pushing against them, attempting to break through. Given that her suit was not suffering any damage at the time, she figured that someone, or something, was attempting to launch a telepathic attack on her. She smiled. One of the advances that had been made to her new suit was its ability to block out low to medium strength telepathic attacks. This had been a result of her having endured a telepathic assault during her mission to _Research Facility 777_. Turning around, she saw two humanoid creatures that she only knew of as a Pokémon. She did not know their species, and she did not really care. All she cared about was that the one with yellow skin's eyes were glowing, indicating that it was launching a psychic attack of some sort on her. Switching to her Wave Beam, she took a few shots at the two Pokémon, making sure to target the Alakazam first, and the Mr. Mime second. The Wave Beam blasts easily phased through the Light Screen and Reflect that the two Pokémon had erected and scored direct hits on them. Electricity arced across their bodies and they were paralyzed for a few seconds. In those few seconds, she switched to her Light Beam, in order to see if the Pokémon were evil or not. Two shots erupted from her Light Beam, and both the Alakazam and Mr. Mime were disintegrated as the two uncharged Light Beam blasts hit them. Samus merely gave a sigh and shook her head as she turned and rushed off in the opposite direction. She had to stop Cyrus before he managed to accomplish whatever he had to do to create his new universe.

She charged forward down the path and quickly came across the final part of a battle between three Team Galactic Executives and two Pokémon Trainers. As she arrived, she witnessed Mars's Purugly unleash a Hyper Beam on Cassandra's Tyranitar. The orange beam scored a direct hit on the large Rock and Dark type Pokémon and felled it, but not before Tyranitar used Earthquake to take down Jupiter's Skuntank, leaving only Jupiter's Bronzong, Venus's Magnezone, and Mars's Purugly conscious. A Thunder Wave from Magnezone was enough to paralyze the two trainers, causing them to cry out in pain as they fell to the ground, electricity arcing across their bodes as they remained on the ground, unable to move.

The three Team Galactic Executives approached the fallen trainers and their Pokémon, drawing stylized guns with two barrels and an electric charge between the two barrels, much like an old Earth stun gun, but this weapon seemed to be quite deadly. Jupiter grinned as she looked down at the trainers and commented in a sadistic tone, "Not the ones that stopped us last time, but I'll take it."

She leveled her lightning gun at Cassandra's head and prepared to pull the trigger, grinning as she was about to kill the fallen girl when an red-orange burst of plasma burned through the center of Jupiter's back, burning a hole through her body, the blast emerging from the center of her chest, blowing out most of her torso. The blast caused her to tense up and fire the gun, missing Cassandra by inches as she fell to the ground, a look of shock and pain etched on her face as she fell into the snow face first. There, she remained motionless, the life having left her body before she even hit the ground.

The blast took Mars and Venus by surprise as they had drawn their own weapons in order to execute Wes and they turned around to find Samus firing again. This time, she fired her Plasma Beam at Purugly. The blast blew through the thick fur and flesh of Purugly's head, disintegrating it, before the Pokémon could even launch an attack. Instantly recognizing their attacker, Mars yelled, "Oh crap, it's Samus!"

She immediately ran towards the ruins so she could alert Cyrus to the threat, leaving Venus and the Pokémon to deal with Samus. The remaining Pokémon were no match for Samus as she charged her Plasma Beam and unleashed the charged blast at the now dead Jupiter's Bronzong as it attempted to use Confuse Ray on her. The suit's shields blocked the light emitted from the Pokémon and Samus destroyed the Pokémon with her Charged Plasma Beam, the blast burning a massive hole in the metal casing of the Pokémon. Bronzong fell to the ground, its eye still open, but the Pokémon dead. This left only Venus's Magnezone.

Magnezone attempted to attack Samus using a Thunderbolt, but Samus's quick movements made it difficult for Magnezone to score a solid hit on Samus. The bounty hunter did not have the same difficulty hitting the electric and steel type Pokémon, though, for a single Plasma Beam blast was more than sufficient to fell the Pokémon, the saucer falling to the ground with a hole in its center. This left only Venus. Venus, knowing that she was no match for Samus, turned and fled from the battle.

Samus proceeded to make her way past the fallen Pokémon when she came upon the paralyzed humans and unconscious Pokémon. Seeing them, stopped for a moment and checked on their condition. They struggled to turn to face her when she placed her fingers on their necks to take their pulses. She felt the throb of blood flowing through their veins and arteries. Looking up at her, Wes said weakly, "Don't stop for us. Cyrus has made it to the Sinjoh Ruins. You have to stop him."

"Don't worry. I will," she assured him.

"Listen," came the voice of Cassandra as she turned to face the bounty hunter. "If Cyrus is headed into the ruins, then he likely has at least one Arceus. With Arceus, he can create Dialga, Palkia, or Giratina. He won't need Giratina, so he'll focus on either Dialga or Palkia. If already has one of them, then he'll only need the other before he can fulfill his desire and have them create a new universe for him out of the ruins of this one."

Samus had suspected that Cyrus had a plan. Given his need to find the Sinjoh Ruins, it was highly probable that he had either more than one Arceus, or he already had either a real Dialga or Palkia. She then rose and charged forward to chase down Cyrus and hopefully manage to stop him before he fulfilled his dreams of remaking the universe.

Venus made her way towards the Sinjoh Ruins, and Cyrus, quickly managing to catch up to Mars. As she did, the two of them approached the temple, seeing one of Cyrus's Arceus standing guard outside the temple. When they saw Arceus, they stopped and told him, "Let us pass! We have to alert Cyrus of Samus's arrival!"

Their only response was a Judgment attack as he fired a large purple ball of energy from his mouth into the air. Realizing that they were under attack, Mars cried, "Wait! We need to let Cyrus know that Samus is here! She's coming for…" but she was cut off as the purple meteors fell to the ground. Mars had been frozen by shock and was annihilated by the first of the meteors. Venus did not last much longer, as she fled from the remaining meteors, but was unable to outrun them as they followed her and collided with her body, annihilating her. Once the two Team Galactic Executives were beaten, Arceus remained motionless, awaiting the arrival of Samus Aran.

Samus continued down the path, rushing forward but still taking numerous glances around her to make sure she was not running headfirst into a trap. Her map's outline on her HUD soon turned red, alerting her to the presence of a known enemy. Seeing this, she figured that switching to her Light Beam would be her best bet against anything that Cyrus would send against her, especially if she had to deal with any Legendary Pokémon. Making her way around a corner, she found the temple where Cyrus was located directly in front of her. Standing in front of the temple, she found an Arceus, ready for battle. Seeing that this Arceus was different from the previous Arceus that Mewtwo had fought earlier, she activated her Scan Visor, her scan coming back, reading, _Morphology – Arceus? Arceus is a Legendary Pokémon and in mythology, has been said to have created the universe. Strange energy reading, plus a drastically reduced power level indicate that subject might not be the real Arceus, but either an organic or magical replica instead. Subject is vulnerable to the Light Beam_.

Samus did not know what to think. The Arceus standing in front of her looked identical to the Dark Arceus that Mewtwo had fought before they were drawn into the void above Mount Coronet a year ago, but her scan indicated that this Arceus was much weaker than the Arceus that was a threat to the universe a year ago. She waited as Arceus rose and moved towards her. A glow surrounded the Arceus as it began to charge her. She dove out of the way as the Pokémon zoomed by her. She took aim at the Arceus and charged her Light Beam. She then let fly with her Light Beam, a large golden ball of light rocketing towards the Alpha Pokémon at the speed of light. The Charged Light Beam blast struck Arceus in the back and engulfed the Alpha Pokémon in a glow of light. Samus checked Arceus's life bar and found that it had lost almost a tenth of his life bar to the attack. Her eyes went wide at the damage that her Light Beam had inflicted. There was no way that her arm cannon's weaponry should have been able to inflict this type of damage to something like Arceus. She had expected her Light Beam to merely be effective against the Arceus, not inflict this type of damage to it. Her Light Beam was supposed to work on evil enemies, not beings like Arceus. She began to wonder if her other beams and missiles would also be effective against him. She brought up her scan and there was an addendum to it, saying, _Additional scan indicates that subject is animated from magic since figure's skin is made of a sort of metallic substance not native to Earth_.

She then decided that it was time to bring this battle to a quick end. As she charged her Light Beam in preparation for using her Light Missile, the Arceus powered a Judgment attack, a purple ball of energy forming in its mouth. Once it was powered up, it unleashed the attack directly towards Samus. The bounty hunter leapt into a Screw Attack and barreled towards Arceus. The purple ball of Judgment collided with her Screw Attack shields and immediately detonated, forcing Samus backwards but not inflicting any damage to her. The explosion expanded towards the walls of the mountain pass, but did not expand any farther, and did not do much more than inflict minor burns on the walls. The attack was much weaker than Dark Arceus's attack had been. She had a feeling that while this Arceus was never as strong as Dark Arceus, or even the original Arceus, she felt as if this Arceus was not even fighting at its own full power. She began to worry that the reason why this Arceus was weakened was because it had already created one of the Pokémon known as the Creation Trio. The fact that the universe had not come to an end told her that if that was the case, then Cyrus only had one of the Creation Trio. However, she did not know how much time it would take for him to get the other one, and how long she had to stop him.

She immediately uncurled herself and took aim at Arceus. Once she had locked onto him, she unleashed a Light Missile at him. The ends of her arm cannon opened and a Light Missile erupted from its center. The missile streaked towards the Pokémon and Arceus powered a Judgment attack, preparing to unleash it on his enemy. Before it could power up the attack, though, the missile struck the Pokémon in the mouth and exploded, not only inflicting tremendous damage onto Arceus, but also detonating its ball of Judgment in its mouth. Arceus was bathed in another shower of light and the added damage done by the detonation of its own attack brought Arceus's life bar down to critical level. A single Charged Light Beam Blast would be enough to take it down.

Arceus began to glow again as Samus charged her Light Beam once more. She steeled herself against his upcoming attack as he came straight towards her. He continued his charge towards the motionless bounty hunter as the ball of light on the end of her arm cannon continued to grow in size until it was fully charged. By the time it reached its full charge, Arceus was only an inch away from Samus. In that second, Samus raised her arm cannon to Arceus's chest and fired her Light Beam blast. The blast struck Arceus in the chest and the blast stopped the charging Pokémon in its tracks. As soon as the blast hit, Arceus began to change. The organic flesh was replaced by a metallic or marble-like substance as a gold stand formed below the Pokémon. In less than a second, Arceus had transformed back into a trophy.

Samus stared at the trophy and activated her Scan Visor, her scan coming back, _Object – Arceus Trophy. This is the Arceus's Trophy form, formed once this Arceus is defeated in battle. The magic controlling the Arceus is still present albeit at a weakened level and the animation magic has been neutralized, for now. Touch the trophy base to revive the Arceus to full strength. Use a Power Bomb to destroy the Arceus Trophy._ Samus knew exactly what choice she would make.

She curled into her Morph Ball form and laid down a Power Bomb, and then fled the scene, knowing what would come next. After a few seconds, the Power Bomb detonated, its annihilation field vaporizing the Arceus Trophy, and also having the blast expand to thirty meters in diameter. The explosion also damaged the walls of the mountain pass, but they did not crumble and block the path. Once the blast had dissipated, Samus made her way past the scene and towards the temple. As she passed, she examined the scene to see if there were any traces of the trophy remaining. Finding none, she proceeded towards the temple at full sprint, wanting to stop Cyrus before he got too far in his plans.

Back inside the Sinjoh Ruins temple, Cyrus watched as the purple egg of Palkia descended to the purple glowing circle to his right, his second animated Arceus trophy standing in the center of the triangular stage. It continued to descend until it was only a few feet above the ground. Just then, Arceus's eyes stopped glowing and he turned towards the ruins' entrance. An explosion blew the door to pieces, propelling the shrapnel into the temple. Entering the temple was Samus Aran. Cyrus's eyes went wide with shock and anger. "No!" he roared in anger and apprehension. "I can't be stopped now!" Looking at Arceus, he commanded, "Kill her now!"

_I am uncertain of my ability to do so_, Arceus answered telepathically. _And besides, I have to focus my power on not only creating Palkia, but also maintaining Dialga's form since the other Arceus trophy has been destroyed. If I engage Samus now, chances are that I would lose, for if am transformed back into a trophy and destroyed, both Dialga and Palkia will disappear, since they are merely extensions of my own power, now_.

This was the worst-case scenario for Cyrus. He could not afford to let Samus ruin his plans, not after having come so close to success. He looked at Samus nervously as she charged her Light Beam. A myriad of thoughts entered his mind at that instant. He knew that he was no match for the bounty hunter and that if he would be cast aside with ease if he were to engage her in a battle. Still, he had to do something, for if she fought Arceus now, it would be destroyed, and his plans would be ruined. Knowing he had no choice but to fight Samus and hope for the best, he went over to Arceus and told him, "Give me something that I can fight her with! I'll cover you while you finish creating Palkia. You will have to maintain them as they create the new universe!"

_Understood_, Arceus answered.

Almost instantly, a suit of power armor appeared over Cyrus's body. It was a blue suit of armor with green highlights. On the side of his right arm was the Shock Coil, an experimental weapon designed by the Galactic Federation under the auspices of former Chairman of Defense Rickard Lorenz. At first, he thought that it was a creation of Arceus, but upon feeling it, he realized that it was a prototype of the Shock Coil suit that Elric had ordered Lorenz to design just after he had taken office. He grinned. With this suit, he should be able to hold off Samus for long enough to allow Palkia to fully form and for the two Pokémon, along with the power of the Arceus trophy that was still intact, to recreate the universe in his own image.

Once the suit of armor had formed, he Cyrus charged towards Samus and unleashed a stream of energy from his Shock Coil. Blue lightning emerged from his Shock Coil projector and searched for Samus. She used one of the pillars below the stage to take cover from the coil. She retaliated with her Charged Light Beam blast. It struck Cyrus directly in the chest, but only inflicted minimal damage on him, much what was to be expected from one of Samus's normal beam weapons. She glanced around at the Sinjoh Ruins. While many archeologists would have wanted to explore and study it, to her, it was merely a building and held no importance to her at all. She soon saw her shields depleting at an alarming rate as she saw Cyrus unleashing his Shock Coil on her. She returned fire with a charged Plasma Beam blast, which scored a direct hit on his head. The blast inflicted twice the damage that it normally would have, due to hitting Cyrus's suit in the head, but it still did not inflict a great deal of damage, relatively speaking, and time was of the essence since Palkia was already beginning to form.

She curled into her Morph Ball form and rolled behind one of the pillars as Cyrus gave chase in order to maintain his contact with her. For every second the Shock Coil's stream of neutrinos and electricity maintained contact with her suit, she the damage that she had already inflicted on him would heal. She used one of the Pokémon statues, the one of Azelf, to break the connection between her and Cyrus and she laid a Power Bomb at the base of the statue, hoping that Cyrus would miss it in his quest to keep her away from Arceus, Dialga, and the forming Palkia.

Sure enough, Cyrus rushed past the bomb as he attempted to fire on Samus once more. As he passed the bomb, she uncurled herself and leapt into a Screw Attack. Not knowing why she did such a thing, he fired his Shock Coil at her once more. As the stream of neutrinos and electricity was deflected by the Screw Attack shield, the Power Bomb detonated and both Cyrus and Samus were engulfed by the explosion. Just as with other Power Bombs, the blast expanded to thirty meters in radius and blew the windows out of the temple, the fire and energy expanding beyond the windows, but not damaging the structure of the temple.

In the distance, Cynthia, Ethan, and the Team Galactic Executives that were still alive looked off into the distance as the light and sound of a massive explosion rocked the landscape. A horrified look crossed the faces of Cynthia, Ethan, as well as the faces of the Team Galactic Executives. For Cynthia and Ethan, a rich part of the past and evidence of the connection between the Sinnoh and Johto Regions of Japan had been either damaged or destroyed. For the Team Galactic Executives, though, a much darker fear entered their minds. That explosion was likely powerful enough to kill or severely injure Cyrus and possibly the other Pokémon inside. If that was the case, then Cyrus's mission was in danger of failing. Unwilling to let that be the final outcome, they charged towards Cynthia, Ethan, and their Pokémon along with the few Pokémon that remained in their parties, and continued the battle, hoping to keep Cynthia and Ethan away from the scene.

Back in the Sinjoh Ruins temple, rubble was strewn about the entire temple. Where once, magnificent statues of Azelf, Uxie, Mesprit, Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina had been erected, now only debris remained. As Samus landed from her Screw Attack and surveyed the wreckage in the temple, she was surprised that the entire temple had not been destroyed, for the Power Bomb should have been powerful enough to do so. In the center of the triangular stage, which also still remained intact, Arceus still stood. She scanned him and found that he had sustained no damage from the Power Bomb's detonation. Apparently, neither did the Dialga that the Arceus was now maintaining, for Dialga stood right where he had originally been before the Power Bomb had gone off. In addition, in the purple circle on the right side of the triangle, Palkia, the dinosaur-like bipedal Pokémon with light purple skin, a gray underside, round purple striped plates on its shoulders with two round pink encrusted pearls, gauntlet-like formations on its arms, and a powerful tail. Palkia appeared to be menacing and gave off a loud cry as it formed. Looking into the eyes of both Pokémon, though, Samus saw no intelligence to speak of. They were merely robots created by Arceus to do its bidding, or rather, Cyrus's.

Not too far away from Samus, Cyrus stood and took stock of himself. His armor's shields had been breached and the Shock Coil had been destroyed. His armor was badly damaged and his HUD was non-functional. He tore his helmet off and turned to the stage, witnessing the final stages of Palkia's formation. His eyes went wide with excitement. He was so close, and he had survived Samus's attack and taken her attention away from the Pokémon. His dreams were about to be realized. As Palkia was finally completed and gave its trademark cry, he charged towards Palkia, heedless of Samus as she leveled her arm cannon towards him, and crying, "Now, Arceus, Dialga, and Palkia. Fulfill my desires. Make me a new universe from the ruins of the old one: a universe without spirit, emotion, pain, or suffering. Make me a new universe where I am its god!" Just as Cyrus had finished his command, he felt a thump in his back as he was knocked down by a blast of plasma from Samus's suit. She had fired on him with an uncharged Plasma Beam blast. He felt the heat burn through his armor as he fell to the floor, suppressing a cry.

After he fell, he stood back up over to the stage, where he crawled up the steps as Dialga gave a roar and blast of energy formed in front of his mouth as the fins on his back extended and grew. An indigo blast was then shot into the air, where it ceased moving for a time, as if being blocked by a shield near the roof of the temple. It was quickly joined by Palkia, whose shoulder pearls began to glow. Pink sparks of energy formed around its arm and entering it, causing it to glow pink. It then made an upward swipe and a pink crescent of energy sent from its arm to the suspended blast of energy from Dialga's Roar of Time. The two energy attacks collided and a black sphere erupted near the top of the temple's roof. Cyrus's eyes went wide with delight. "It's happening!" he stammered, barely able to contain his excitement. "It's really happening!" he cried. "Yes! I've done it! I've won!" He stared into the expanding black globe and saw a faint shimmering light at its center. A new universe was being born and was about to explode onto the scene, destroying this one.

Samus was not about to let this current universe be destroyed without putting up a fight, though, and targeted the center of the black sphere. She powered a Light Missile and, once it was charged, she fired it at the sphere's center. The missile rocketed from her arm cannon towards the black void and disappeared inside. It exploded once it had entered the sphere, but it did nothing to close or destabilize it. Cyrus merely laughed at Samus. "Heh, heh, heh. That weak Light Missile won't be enough to destabilize my new universe. It's over, Samus. I've won!"

She then opened fire in the direction of the three Pokémon, focusing her fire on Arceus, hoping that his destruction would also result in the destruction of Dialga and Palkia, and, in turn, their destruction would disperse the black sphere. However, Palkia intercepted the blast and was bathed in a golden light once the Light Beam hit, inflicting minimal damage to the Pokémon. Palkia countered with a Spacial Rend, sending down a crescent of energy towards Samus. She dodged the blast, allowing it to strike the ground, but when it made contact with the ground, it expanded and formed a new portal. Casually glancing into the portal, Samus thought she saw a land filled with green pipes, as well as flashes of a battle being fought. She turned back to Arceus, who was now protected by Dialga, Palkia, and Cyrus. Cyrus laughed as he turned and stared into the black globe, which was beginning to expand at an increased rate. As she tried to deal with the trio in front of Arceus, Arceus and the other Pokémon began to power their signature attacks once more. "It's all over," Cyrus cried as he commanded his Pokémon, "Now kill the last source of resistance and allow my universe to consume this one!"

The Pokémon nodded and launched their attacks at Samus, but she flipped over the portal, allowing them to sail into the portal. However, before they arrived, blue waves of energy erupted from the portal and pushed the blasts back to the Pokémon. The attacks collided with the Pokemon and sent them sailing into the wall behind them. Cyrus had seen the attacks coming and had managed to dodge before taking the full brunt of the damage. However, his elation was soon replaced with anger, hatred, and terror as he saw a figure appear in front of the portal. Upon seeing the figure, his eyes went wide with fear as he recognized the humanoid cat-like Pokémon standing before him as Mewtwo. "Noooo!" he cried in despair as Mewtwo stared at the Arceus trophy and the other Pokémon, his eyes glowing.

Samus emerged from behind the portal and joined Mewtwo presenting a united front against Cyrus and the other Pokémon. Mewtwo stared at the expanding sphere and held his hand out. Immediately, a field of blue energy encompassed the expanding sphere, halting its expansion in its tracks. After halting its expansion, he closed his hand into a fist. As he did so, the blue field of energy collapsed onto the black globe and crushed it. The black globe continued to be compressed until it imploded and dissipated in its entirety, leaving behind nothing but a few sparks of energy, which promptly faded into nothingness. "I will not let you destroy this universe," Mewtwo declared. "And I will use all of my power to defend it!"

Cyrus seethed and glared at Mewtwo. His plans had been crushed, but he was not dead yet. He would get back at him for this. He then yelled, "Then it will take all of your power!" Turning to his Pokémon, he screamed, "Attack! Kill them!" And Arceus, Dialga, and Palkia obeyed Cyrus and launched their respective attacks on Mewtwo and Samus. The battle for the universe had begun in earnest.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23:

Mewtwo powered a Blizzard attack and sent it at the three enemy Pokémon and Cyrus. Samus also joined in, charging her Ice Beam and unleashing an expanding wave of ice from her Ice Spreader. Samus's Ice Spreader assisted Mewtwo's Blizzard in its attempt to overpower Cyrus's Pokémon's attacks. The attacks collided with the three attacks unleashed by the Trophy Arceus and the Dialga and Palkia that it had created. There, the attacks remained suspended in midair, Arceus's purple ball of Judgment, Dialga's Roar of Time, and Palkia's Spacial Rend pressing against Mewtwo's Blizzard and Samus's Ice Spreader. Despite the fact that it was three against two, with Samus only using an Ice Spreader that should not have had anywhere close to the power of Mewtwo's Blizzard, the two of them were more than able to hold their own against the attacks of the three Pokémon, something that did not escape the notice of either Mewtwo or Samus.

"Something's wrong with them," he said as his and Samus's attacks began to push back the attacks of the enemy Pokémon. "They should be far stronger than this, especially Arceus."

"I fought an Arceus outside the temple," Samus informed him. When I defeated it, it transformed into a trophy of some sort."

"Trophy?" Mewtwo asked, his eyes widening and glancing down towards Samus.

"Yes," she answered, nodding. "Why do you ask?"

Mewtwo considered her question for a second before answering, "Nothing. At least nothing that should distract us from the battle at hand." He paused for a moment before asking her, "What did you do once the first Arceus reverted back to a trophy?"

"I dropped a Power Bomb and destroyed it," she answered.

"Are you _certain_ that the trophy was destroyed?"

"Positive," she said firmly. "I watched as it disintegrated."

That seemingly brought a sigh of relief to Mewtwo, but he did not let the new information distract him, or cause him to underestimate his foes. He could not afford to be caught off guard and defeated. He continued to push energy into his Blizzard attack and it continued to push back against the three attacks that the enemy Pokémon had launched.

As Mewtwo and Samus focused on the Pokémon, Cyrus was not sitting idle. He went over to one of the circles and charged his Shock Coil in an attempt to power the shields and weapons of his suit. His suit was not equipped with any missiles, but his Shock Coil required energy to fire and did not have unlimited ammunition. Once he had arrived at the blue circle of Dialga, he opened his Shock Coil's receptors and absorbed the energy into the weapon. He smiled at the modification that he had made to his suit and its weapons. He also managed to gain an Energy Tank's worth of shielding as well, but with his helmet having had its HUD destroyed and being useless, he knew that he had to avoid taking any shots to the head, for the shields would still allow bleed-through damage, which would be fatal on a hit to his head.

Once he had filled the sole Energy Tank that had not been burned out by the Power Bomb detonation, he focused back on the battle. He was just in time to see Mewtwo's Blizzard, and Samus's Ice Spreader break through the Pokémon's attacks and inflict damage on them. The Normal type Arceus and the Ice/Steel type Dialga managed to weather the storm without suffering too much damage, but they were sent skidding back a few steps. Palkia, despite being a Water/Dragon Pokémon, had fared much worse. It had taken the brunt of the impact and was frozen solid by the Blizzard and Samus's wave of ice, turning the Spatial Pokemon into an ice statue. Samus fired a single missile at the Pokémon and it was instantly shattered as the missile struck the frozen Pokémon and detonated. Shards of ice were hurled from the center of the explosion, but after a few seconds, they froze in midair, and reversed their momentum. In another second, they were returning to their point of origin, as if they were being rewound like a movie. After a couple of seconds, Palkia had re-formed, only this time, it was no longer frozen. Cyrus decided that it was best to hold back and wait to see how the battle resolved itself. He would only intervene directly if any of the Pokémon got in any real trouble.

Not too far away from where the Chairman of the Galactic Federation was observing the battle, Palkia reentered the fight and unleashed another Spacial Rend towards Samus. The bounty hunter was about to dodge the attack when Mewtwo teleported in front of the attack and used his shield to reflect it back at Palkia. Palkia took the attack and sustained no damage at all. Mewtwo then called over to Samus, "Focus on Arceus! The other two are immortal. Taking down Arceus is the only way to defeat them!"

Samus nodded and went to switch to her Light Beam. As she tried to do so, though, a field of energy surrounded her and she rose into the air. She checked her HUD and found that her shield strength was being depleted by the energy field. Seeing Arceus's eyes glow, she realized that it was using its telekinesis to lift her into the air and inflict damage. Seeing that she still had her Ice Beam, she attempted to pull the trigger of her Ice Beam so as to charge an Ice Spreader shot. She found herself able to do so and once more, her Ice Spreader was charging. As she was charging it, though, Dialga and Palkia unleashed their Roar of Time and Spacial rend on her, respectively. Using all of her strength, she was barely able to curl into a Screw Attack and cause the blasts to strike her shield and detonate, inflicting no damage to her, or to the rest of the universe. Looking at the two Pokémon, she realized that if they were able to get their attacks to collide once more, that another universe could be created and Cyrus would still have his dreams fulfilled. It was not over yet. Still, if Mewtwo had spent the entire year fighting inside the other dimension, or even merely a day or two, he would undoubtedly be tired and be struggling to maintain anything close to his full power. Knowing that Dialga and Palkia were indestructible also meant that they would be able to cover Arceus against Mewtwo when he went to fight the Pokémon trophy.

Samus looked over at Mewtwo and told him, "We only have one shot at this. You take on Arceus. I'll distract Dialga and Palkia. I might not be able to destroy them, but I can take them out of action for at least a few moments and make it a one-on-one fight at the very least."

Mewtwo nodded and replied, "Go for it."

Samus then charged forward and opened fire with her Ice Beam, targeting the two Pokémon. Her intention was to make them, or rather, Arceus, think that she viewed her Ice Beam as being doubly effective due to them being Dragon type Pokémon, seemingly not knowing about their second types of Steel for Dialga, and Water for Palkia. For her part, though, Samus knew that she was not going to inflict any real damage to the two Pokémon, her only hope was that they would be frozen by one of her attacks so that she and Mewtwo could focus on beating Arceus.

As she opened fire, the Pokémon took the hits indicating that they were suffering only a minimum of damage, if any. Still, she had to be careful, for if she allowed them to attack at the same time, then the risk of their attacks colliding and beginning another universe, at the cost of this one, was a very real possibility. She positioned herself so that one of the two Pokémon was standing in front of the other. In this case, Dialga was standing in front of Palkia. As soon as she had assumed her chosen position, she charged her Ice Beam and fired. Her ball of ice streaked towards the Pokémon and scored a direct hit on the Temporal Pokémon. The ball of ice detonated but it did not freeze Dialga solid. She grimaced as he returned fire with a Roar of Time. She leapt into a Screw Attack and allowed the indigo blast to wash over her. The beam struck her and crashed around the Screw Attack shield, washing over it but not managing to have any if its energy bleed through to inflict damage to her suit. Samus was pleasantly surprised at the lack of power, relatively speaking, in the attacks. From what little she had heard of Dialga and Palkia, they were extremely powerful Pokémon whose Roar of Time should have a the very least inflicted bleed-through damage However, here she was, not only holding her own against them, but merely having to hold out long enough for Mewtwo to deal with Arceus, who, himself, seemed to be noticeably weaker than he should have been, especially compared to Dark Arceus. She figured that their power was proportionate to the power of the Arceus trophy that Mewtwo was facing; and since the Arceus trophy was weaker than the original Arceus, it followed that these Pokémon would be that much weaker than their counterparts. That brought up the question in the bounty hunter's mind as to whether or not the black globe really _would_ have created a new universe and have destroyed this one. She did not doubt that it would have likely caused a great deal of destruction on the Earth, but the question remained as to whether or not Cyrus's dreams would have been fulfilled. She did not want to take the risk of Dialga and Palkia being able to fulfill Cyrus's wishes and create a new universe at the expense of this one, so she decided that she had to deal with them, once and for all.

She charged another shot from her Ice Beam and targeted the two Pokémon, making sure that they were close together so that she would be able to hit both of her opponents with her Ice Spreader. Once the beam was charged, an expanding wave of ice erupted from her arm cannon and rocketed towards the Pokémon. Palkia and Dialga countered by preparing to launch their signature attacks, but before they were able to power them up, the wave of ice hit them, with Palkia taking a direct hit from the ice wave. Upon impact, the wave of ice exploded and encased the Spatial Pokémon in a block of ice, freezing it solid. Dialga was able to escape suffering the same fate, but not able to avoid taking damage from the attack. It recoiled a bit and glanced over at Palkia. Seemingly realizing that it could restore Palkia if it shattered the frozen Pokémon, it powered a Roar of Time.

Seeing this, Samus interposed herself between the two Pokémon and leapt into a Screw Attack just as she was charging another Ice Spreader. Dialga fired his attack and a thick indigo beam erupted towards the bounty hunter. Shielding herself with her Screw Attack shields, she managed to avoid sustaining any damage from the attack. Even better was the fact that the beam crashed upon her Screw Attack shields and was deflected not only around Samus, but also around the frozen Palkia. She knew that Palkia would not remain frozen forever, but every second that it _did_ remain frozen gave Mewtwo more time to deal with Trophy Arceus less interference coming from Dialga or Palkia. Once Dialga's attack had finished, Samus unleashed another Ice Spreader blast upon it. The expanding wave of ice streaked towards the Pokémon as it powered another Roar of Time. However, just as with Palkia, Dialga suffered a direct hit before it managed to get its next attack off. The wave of ice struck Dialga in its center of mass and detonated, releasing a tremendous blast wave of ice in all directions. Dialga was frozen instantly and its attack dissipated. Samus then moved to her left and charged her Ice Beam once more, this time, unleashing a Charged Shot on Palkia in order to make sure that it remained frozen. Once her shot scored a direct hit on the already frozen Palkia and undid the progress that Palkia had made in trying to thaw itself, she kept a close watch on both Pokémon in order to make sure that neither of them thawed and attacked Mewtwo while he was engaging Trophy Arceus.

Meanwhile, Mewtwo was holding his own against the Arceus trophy that was fighting him. He glanced over at Samus and saw that she had her battle against Dialga and Palkia well in hand, and concentrated on his own fight against Trophy Arceus. Trophy Arceus powered a purple ball of energy in its mouth and launched it directly at Mewtwo. Mewtwo teleported out of the way of the attack, appearing behind Arceus, unleashing a swirling blue Aura Sphere. The sphere scored a direct hit on Arceus and sent the Pokémon flying through the air. The Alpha Pokémon quickly recovered and grinned, thinking that Mewtwo had not noticed its attack splitting apart and all of the purple meteors zeroing in on him. However, Mewtwo was well aware of the nature of Judgment and was merely waiting for the attack to split. He powered a reflector shield and allowed the meteors to hit it. Since they were far weaker than the regular Arceus's, or Dark Arceus's, for that matter, he knew that his shields would be able to withstand the attack and send it back to Trophy Arceus.

Just as he had expected, the purple meteors collided with his shields, causing the blue barrier to flare into existence with each hit, and reflected them back at Trophy Arceus. As the blasts were reflected back at Arceus, it recoiled in surprise and prepared to counter with a Hyper Beam. Unfortunately, its own attack collided with it and knocked it backwards before it had finished charging the Hyper Beam. This caused Arceus to spontaneously unleash the Hyper Beam towards the ceiling of the temple. The beam bored a hole straight through the ceiling, which continued its path, vaporizing a few Federation Claymore-class bombers, and an Assault Transport that was coming to deliver reinforcements for Cyrus. The blast continued until it hit Earth's planetary shields. The beam splashed against them and the shields took the full brunt of the impact, shrugging it off just as it had the numerous, and far more powerful, energy blasts from the capital ships that were pounding on the shield.

After Arceus unleashed its Hyper Beam, it remained suspended in midair, motionless, recharging from unleashing the tremendous attack. Out of the corner of her eye, Samus had witnessed the blast and saw that it was likely a lot more powerful than anything the Trophy Arceus that she had fought had unleashed. She did not know whether or not she had merely managed to catch it off guard, or if he had been weaker than this current Arceus. She did not care, though, as she quickly turned to focus on the Arceus and inflict as much damage to it as she could before it recharged and entered the fight once more. Despite the fact that the Trophy Arceus's life bar on the top of her HUD was showing that it had lost more than half of its life, she did not want to give it a chance to recover. She charged her Light Beam and took aim at the recharging Pokémon, just as Mewtwo was powering a Psystrike.

Not too far away, was watching the battle, both enraged and terrified: enraged that his Pokémon were losing the battle, but also terrified since he knew that he was not powerful enough to go up against Samus, let alone Mewtwo, especially if Trophy Arceus's Dialga and Palkia could not do much to the duo. When he saw his enemies getting the better of his Pokémon, he decided that he had to try something. The problem was that without his helmet, he could not enter his Lockjaw form and lay down any of his energy mines. Those were the only weapon that he had, at the moment, that he felt would have been enough to inflict some real damage to Samus. Seeing that if he did nothing, that his Pokémon would be defeated, though, he decided to enter the fray and target Samus, since she had demonstrated that she had the ability to defeat a Trophy Arceus, likely due to her Light Beam, or one of her stronger Charge Beam Combos.

He charged towards Samus, readying his Shock Coil, but before he could launch an attack, Mewtwo cried out towards the bounty hunter in warning, "Samus, watch out!"

Samus had already spotted Cyrus coming, though, and redirected her arm cannon to focus on him. As soon as she spotted him, she let fly with a Charged Light Beam blast, not wanting to waste a Light Missile on him. The Light Beam blast scored a direct hit on Cyrus's chest and bathed him in an aura of golden light. Cyrus wailed aloud in agony as the light burned him, even through his shields, which had been taken down to half strength by the attack. The light burned his body and his face, leaving several horrible scars across his face before it dissipated. The Team Galactic leader fell to the ground, writhing in agony as he fired his Shock Coil into the ground, further inflicting damage to his shields when the electricity and neutrinos were attracted to his suit's shields. He immediately shut down his attack and gazed out at the battle as Samus refocused her attention towards Trophy Arceus, and the defrosting Dialga and Palkia. Seeing that engaging Samus was of little use, he focused on trying to flee the battle so he could live to plan another attempt at creating a new universe for himself. He then noticed one of Palkia's Spacial Rends that had not been sealed. Remembering that this rend was the one that Mewtwo had emerged from, he decided that fleeing through it was better than staying here and likely getting killed, for he saw no way for Trophy Arceus to be able to defeat Mewtwo. Using what little strength he had left, he struggled over towards the rend, hoping that it would lead to either an escape, or, in his wildest dreams, another universe that he could rule.

Back at the fighting, Mewtwo had fully powered his Psystrike and pointed his right paw up towards the Trophy Arceus. Just as he was targeting Arceus, Dialga and Palkia broke free of the ice and prepared their attacks. Ice shards were sent flying from the Pokémon and rained upon the party. Samus, who was charging her Light Beam, looked up and noticed the Pokémon preparing their attacks. She adjusted her aim towards the Pokémon and readied a Light Missile for firing. As she was about to open fire, though, she caught Mewtwo unleashing his Psystrike on Trophy Arceus out of the corner of her eye. Seeing that it would be a good idea to wait before wasting ten missiles for a Light Missile that might not be necessary, she leapt into a Screw Attack and positioned herself close to Mewtwo, protecting him from the attacks of Dialga and Palkia as they were on the verge of launching them; but the attacks never came.

The blue psychic energy wave that was Mewtwo's Psystrike was propelled towards Trophy Arceus as it was still recharging from its failed Hyper Beam. The blue wave of energy surged towards the stricken Pokémon and scored a direct hit on it. Upon taking the full brunt of the strike, Trophy Arceus's flesh immediately transformed into metal as a golden base formed beneath the Pokémon. After a few seconds, Arceus had turned back into a trophy. After Arceus had reverted to a trophy, it fell from the air and clattered on the ground, eventually landing on its base. Once the trophy had landed, Mewtwo launched an Aura Sphere at the trophy and blew it apart with one strike. The pieces of the trophy flew through the air and landed in various parts of the temple. As they did so, they erupted into an unnatural green flame. Each piece of the trophy took a few seconds before it was consumed by said flames. As Arceus was being destroyed, Samus gazed upwards and saw the blue and pink highlights of Dialga and Palkia light up. As they did so, a blue and pink outline formed around the two Pokémon. She could tell that this was a prelude to them disappearing, for with Arceus destroyed, there was no will keeping them intact. Sparkles emerged from the bodies as they faded away into nothingness, with even the sparkles fading after a few seconds. After the two Pokémon had vanished, Mewtwo relaxed, obviously winded from the battle, and likely from whatever fighting he did in the dimension that he had just escaped from when Palkia had used its Spacial Rend.

After the Pokémon disappeared, Samus turned to the Spacial Rend that Palkia had launched at her that she had avoided earlier in the battle. She saw it begin to shrink and she approached it to make sure that it vanished. As she approached it, though, the outlines of her map turned red, indicating the presence of an enemy. Quickly looking at the entrance to the temple, she saw no signs of anyone coming, so she focused her attention back to the shrinking Spacial Rend. As it was beginning to close, she saw a figure emerging from the rend. Her eyes went wide as she recognized the figure as being a Magic Lord. Given his physical appearance, short red hair, blue eyes, appearing to be about sixteen Earth years old, and wearing golden armor, he was likely the same one that she had fought over a year ago. For a fleeting instant, she wondered how the Magic Lord had survived the battle, but she quickly shook off the thought. She then focused her Light Beam on the Magic Lord and prayed that it would be effective against him.

As she tracked the Magic Lord, she realized that he was going for a blitz on Mewtwo, hoping to catch the Pokémon with his guard down. Samus, seeing the youth draw his sword, which was beginning to emit a golden glow, cried, "Mewtwo, watch out!" as she fired her Light Beam at the Magic Lord.

Her Light Beam erupted from her cannon and crossed the distance between herself and the Magic Lord at the speed of light, instantly catching the youth and knocking him away from the Pokémon as he turned to face his attacker. The Magic Lord youth gave out a cry as he was surrounded by an aura of golden light. When Mewtwo turned, instead of spotting the Magic Lord, he caught sight of another figure, this one female. Back behind the female Magic Lord, he saw the Spacial Rend closing until it vanished completely. He narrowed his gaze on her and snarled, "Aglara."

Aglara ignored Mewtwo as she glanced over to Aramon, who was still screaming as the last flickers of golden light shimmered around his body. Her eyes went wide with shock and fear as she looked over at Samus, who was already charging her Light Beam for another attack. "Damn!" she swore. "How did _she_ get a hold of a Light Weapon?"

Samus did not care about what Aglara was talking about, only that the Light Beam seemed to do wonders for her. She scanned the Magic Lady, her scan coming back, _Morphology – Female Elvanheim. This Elvanheim youth is powerful for one of her age. Also known as Magic Lords, subject's kind possess skills in all forms of magic and are said to ride dragons across the cosmos and between dimensions, sometimes being referred to as Dragon Lords by races they encounter, and kill. Subject has a glaring weakness to special Light energy, as well as a smaller vulnerability to the Wave Beam_.

After scanning Aglara, she promptly scanned the male Magic Lord that had attempted to catch Mewtwo off guard. This scan came back, _Morphology – Male Elvanheim. Like the female Elvanheim, this one is also strong for his age. Subject is less skilled in the areas of magic, but makes up for it in his physical combat skills, which are second to none. Subject's only weaknesses are the Light Beam, Wave Beam, their Charge Combos, and psychic powers_.

After reading the scans, she was surprised that the male was still vulnerable to psychic powers, while the female did not seem to have any particular vulnerability to them. Before the fighting began in earnest, though, Mewtwo called over to her and told her, "You take Aramon while I deal with Aglara."

Believing that Aglara was the female that did not have a vulnerability to psychic powers, Samus asked, "Are you sure about that? My scans indicate that Aramon is vulnerable to psychic powers. Perhaps _I_ should take on…" but she would not get to choose her opponent, for Aramon had chosen to face her when he launched a golden energy blast at her from his sword.

"You," he seethed. "You embarrassed me a year ago, your time. For me, though, that humiliation was only a couple of days ago. Now, I will get my revenge…by killing you!" he cried.

Aramon charged forward towards Samus, his sword held high. Aglara saw the reckless charge and yelled to her brother, "Wait! She's different from before!"

He did not listen, though, and continued his charge. Samus, for her part, merely charged her Light Beam and prepared to attack. She zeroed in on the Magic Lord as he pointed his sword towards her. He let loose another blast of golden energy from his sword, which Samus was already in the process of dodging. The blast sailed over her head and hit the ground several dozen meters behind her. She countered with a Charged Light Beam blast that managed to score a direct hit on him. This time, though, Aramon was prepared. He had raised a magical shield over himself that absorbed the blow, only allowing a small amount of energy to bleed through and inflict actual damage to him. Still, the damage that managed to seep through was significant. He howled in agony as the light struck his body and burned it, creating an aura that continued to burn him. Before Samus could attack again, though, he vanished from his current location and reappeared right behind the bounty hunter. She was expecting him to try a sneak attack, though, so she instinctively curled up into her Morph Ball form, causing his sword slash to sail over top of her, and laid a Power Bomb. Once she laid the Power Bomb, she rolled as far away as possible before its detonation.

Aramon, heedless of the bomb at his feet, stepped on the bomb, causing it to detonate. The explosion washed over him, his shield focusing the full brunt of the blast on him, rather than allowing it to spread out and risk damaging the building. Aramon had cared nothing for the temple, though. He merely did not feel the need to lower his shield, even though in his weakened condition, the shield was severely strained due to the Power Bomb's detonation. Samus rolled back and laid down another Power Bomb, hoping to finish the job. Aramon, however, had other ideas. Chanting a spell, a purple ball of energy formed over his head. Once the ball was formed, he fired it directly at the Power Bomb. The ball of energy collided with the Power Bomb and the bomb vanished into thin air. However, Aramon did not consider the possibility of the Power Bomb merely being a decoy, for as he was dealing with the threat of the Power Bomb, Samus was charging her Light Beam once more. Once it was charged, she decided that her best chance to kill Aramon quickly would be the Light Missile, for while the Light Beam did inflict severe damage to him, she wanted to deal with him quickly so she could help Mewtwo deal with Aglara. She unleashed her Light Missile on Aramon as he fired his spell on the Power Bomb. The missile crossed the distance between Samus and Aramon at faster than the speed of sound and it struck the Magic Lord squarely in the chest and detonated. A wave of light emerged from the detonating missile and crashed over Aramon. Aramon, having already suffered damage from a previous Light Beam attack, as well as suffering minor damage from the Power Bomb detonation, was unable to handle the Light Missile's explosion. He gave a cry of agony as his body disintegrated under the pure light that assaulted his body. After a few seconds, all traces of Aramon were gone.

All but forgotten during the fight with the Pokémon, and later, the Magic Lords, Cyrus stood in the center of the stage, gradually replenishing his energy and ammunition for his Shock Coil. He realized that without a helmet, he would not be able to scan Samus and find out her own shield strength, and not have a quick readout of his own shield and ammunition levels, but a small side monitor did have an indicator of his shield strength and remaining ammunition in the form of two solid bars, green for his shields, blue for his Shock Coil ammunition. Once both bars were filled, he went ran over to Samus and opened fire on her. He would let the newcomer, who he figured was a Magic Lord or some other powerful fighter, deal with Mewtwo. With any luck, they would kill each other and he would deal with Samus, destroying the only real threats to any further chances of him managing to accomplish his objectives. Even with the Trophy Arceus having been destroyed, the real Arceus was still out there, somewhere. Should he manage to reconstruct a Red Chain, he would theoretically be able to take control of Arceus and create his new universe once more. First, though, he would have to deal with Samus.

He began the fight by charging towards her and unleashing a stream of electricity and neutrinos from his Shock Coil. The stream of electricity made contact with Samus's suit and began to drain it of its energy. The drain was slow, though, due to Samus's enhanced shielding and resistance to weapons like the Shock Coil. The weapon's effect was significantly reduced from what the reports that Cyrus had read about the weapon had indicated. The slow drain gave Samus all day to move to her left, switch to her Wave Beam, charge it, and unleash a stream of electricity from her Wavebuster. The stream of electricity arced towards Cyrus's suit and inflicted massive damage to its shields. Cyrus immediately fled from Samus as he watched his green shield bar constantly decrease. He occasionally turned back to use his Shock Coil against Samus in order to drain her of some of her energy, but it was not having the desired effect. For each unit of energy that Cyrus managed to restore, he lost ten. Quickly realizing that he had to cut the connection between himself and Samus, he fled to one of the fallen statues. Ducking behind it, he managed to sever his connection with Samus, but not before he lost more than three quarters of his suit's energy. Cursing, he switched to his own Power Beam, since it was actually more effective than his Shock Coil against her and, knowing that he had little chance of success, but no real option at the moment, hid behind the statue and took a few potshots at Samus, hoping to get lucky. This prompted Samus to turn fire a Super Missile towards him. He dove away from the missile, but it still landed close to him and the explosion hurled him through the air, inflicting damage to his suit. Once he was down, Samus looked over at Aglara and Mewtwo fighting, and switched to her Light Beam once more so she could assist him in the fighting. Cyrus, however, was far from finished, and merely waited for his moment to be able to inflict some damage to his enemies.

Meanwhile, during Samus's fight against Aramon, Aglara launched and assault on Mewtwo. Chanting an alien spell, she unleashed a vicious cone of fire on Mewtwo. Unfortunately, for her, though, Mewtwo had raised a shield over his body and reflected the stream of fire back at her. The spell crashed against her shield and collapsed it, but it did not inflict any real damage to her, using up all of its energy against her own shield. Mewtwo followed up with a Psystrike. Blue waves of energy formed in front of him and were then launched Aglara's way. She raised another shield to protect herself from Mewtwo's attack, and hopefully repel it back towards him, but it was not enough. Her shield strained under the weight of Mewtwo's attack and even her improved defenses against psychic attacks proved to be insufficient to stop his attack. The attack broke through her shields and inflicted direct damage to her. The damage was not fatal, but it was significant enough for Aglara to cast a healing spell on herself just to make sure that a lucky shot from Mewtwo would not be sufficient to take her out.

Once she had completed the spell, she focused her energy on taking down Mewtwo once more. She drew her sword and launched a quick volley of energy blasts in the direction of the psychic Pokémon. Before the first shot was fired, though, Mewtwo vanished from his location and teleported behind her. Guessing that he would try a tactic like that, Aglara grinned as she sent the energy blasts behind her, firing at the location that Mewtwo had just reappeared a moment earlier. However, her energy blasts merely sizzled air as Mewtwo teleported away once more. As the female Magic Lord was trying to ascertain where Mewtwo would reappear, she found herself flying through the air, and towards a wall. She crashed into the wall and slid down, blue blood leaking from the back of her head. Once she landed, she fell into a heap and was slow to rise. It was not until she witnessed Samus kill Aramon that she managed to stand; her eyes wide at the shocking sight. How was this possible? There was no way a Magic Lord could fall to a mere mortal. She could understand falling to Mewtwo. He was powerful and psychics were strong against Magic Lords. But for a mortal like Samus to kill him? Even with a Light weapon, it was hard for her to believe that Aramon would die against her. However, she would not let Aramon's death go unavenged.

She pointed her sword towards Samus and prepared to launch an energy blast when she found herself flying through the air once more. She crashed into a wall and fell to the ground, dazed but not too badly hurt. She rose and saw Mewtwo standing between her and Samus. She grimaced. Despite the fact that in her Aramon's fight against Mewtwo, she had managed to find a way to neutralize a psychic's natural advantage over her, Mewtwo was still a very capable opponent. In fact, she began to think that he was every bit as powerful as a Magic Lord. And even with her brother, had there not been other forces inside the Warp Zone with them, coming to their aid, or rather, sacrificing themselves so that the two of them could recover from their battles, they would not have survived this long fighting Mewtwo. Now, it did not matter, though, for her brother, and also lover, was now dead; killed by a Light weapon wielded by a mortal human. She knew that she could not defeat both fighters in this battle, but if she could deal with one of them, that would be a great boon to both her and her people and their plans for this galaxy. She gritted her teeth and raised her sword once more. Gazing at Mewtwo, she could see that the psychic Pokémon was weakening. His strength had reached its limit. While she wanted to get revenge on Samus for the murder of her brother, she knew that in order to get to the bounty hunter, she would have to go through Mewtwo, and while he was tiring out, she knew that he still had enough stamina to deal with her if she was distracted by the bounty hunter.

Knowing that she had no choice, she pointed her sword at Mewtwo and sent a volley of energy blasts his way while simultaneously extending her left hand and unleashing a stream of lightning from her fingertips at the Pokémon. Mewtwo's shield caught the energy blasts and strained against them, flaring but managed to hold firm. Her magical lightning attack, though, was much more difficult for him to deal with, though. Her overcoming her weakness to psychic attacks had the side effect of allowing her own lighting to break through enemy shields, just like the Earth psychic attack, PSI Thunder used by members of the Chosen Four and other Earth human psychics. Her lightning attack partially managed to do what she had intended. While PSI Thunder usually managed to not only break down shields, but also inflict damage on its targets, her magical lightning merely managed to shatter Mewtwo's shields. She fired a second burst of lightning, this time managing to inflict damage to Mewtwo. Electricity arced across Mewtwo's body and he was stood frozen in place, seemingly paralyzed by the attack.

Seeing this as her best chance to kill Mewtwo, she charged forward, keeping a close eye on Samus, who was had just fired a Super Missile at Cyrus, knocking him away from the fight. Seeing this as her chance to kill Mewtwo without any interference, she raised her sword and, charging it to glow gold, she charged the Pokémon as electricity still arced across his body. She grinned as she rushed towards him. Once she was a few feet away, she thrust her sword forward, intending to impale Mewtwo in the heart. However, just as her sword was merely an inch away, Mewtwo raised his left hand and a shield formed over his body. Her sword struck the shield and both strained against the other.

"Crap!" the female Magic Lady swore as her sword struck Mewtwo's shield. The only good thing about the current stalemate was the fact that Mewtwo had not initiated an attack on her. Still, she saw that her sword was not making any progress. Instead, Mewtwo's shield was pushing back and she felt herself giving way.

Seeing that her current level of strength was not sufficient, she realized that she had no choice but to push all of her remaining strength into the thrust. She gave a cry as she continued to push against Mewtwo's shield. She grunted as Mewtwo pushed back, but she continued to push towards his shield. Little by little, she saw her sword begin to make its way through the cat-like Pokémon's shield and she began to grin. "Looks like you're not gonna win this one, are ya?" she gloated.

Mewtwo merely grinned as he tightened his shield, locking her sword in its current position. Aglara tried to shove her sword through, pushing more energy into the sword, but it refused to budge. "Move!" she cried to the sword. "Damn it, move!"

Mewtwo countered by pushing against the Magic Lord, forcing her backwards. Aglara pushed back, though and managed to regain the ground she had lost, grunting as she attempted to power through Mewtwo's shield and stab him. Little by little, she felt her sword pushing through his shield, but her strength was beginning to wane. She then felt a thump to her lower abdomen as an energy blast hit her, her own natural shield being the only thing preventing the blast from inflicting real damage as the pulse of energy blew through the shield and burned the armor, transferring some of the heat to Aglara's skin. "Crap!" she swore again, grunting. "That one hurt."

She then continued forcing her sword through Mewtwo's shield, forcing him to push more energy to stop its momentum, mere millimeters away from his chest. However, she tilted the sword upwards, and now it was pointing straight at his head. She continued to push the sword towards his head, nearly managing to have the glowing edges make contact with Mewtwo's skin, when the sword came to a sudden halt, as if it had hit a steel wall. "C'mon!" she roared. "Just…#$%&ing…die!" she cried, failing to notice Samus charging her Light Beam behind her.

Mewtwo promptly reached out with his left hand and grabbed Aglara's sword hand, closing his paw over her hand. The sound of bones cracking and breaking echoed throughout the temple. Aglara cried out as her hand was crushed. A second jerk dislocated her shoulder, causing her to howl in pain once more. Once she was disabled, Mewtwo nodded towards Samus. Samus unleashed her Light Beam upon Aglara, the golden beams of light striking her in the back. As soon as the beam struck her, an explosion of light washed over her, burning her armor and body in the process. Burns and scars formed across her arms, legs, and face as the light continued to shine forth around her, horribly deforming her as her right arm fell off, its flesh being disintegrated by the light. She continued to cry and scream as she endured the assault. After a few more seconds, though, the light faded and the assault mercifully ended and she fell to her knees, and then to the ground, tears streaming from her eyes. Both Mewtwo and Samus were shocked by the end result, for while Aglara was not yet dead, third degree burns now covered most of her exposed body, and there were numerous blisters, puddles, and burns on her once pristine armor. She struggled to move as she crawled towards her enemies, her hatred for them still showing on her face.

A pang of sympathy entered the hearts of Mewtwo and Samus as they saw Aglara, who still looked to be no older than a human teenager, writhing in agony on the ground. Then Samus remembered how close humanity had come to near extinction because of Aglara and her brother. That gave her the resolve to neutralize her threat, permanently. She pointed her arm cannon at the fallen Magic Lord, who weakly turned her head to face her enemies. She managed to croak, "You…will…die," before she vanished from their sight. Both Samus and Mewtwo looked around to see where she would reappear…if she would reappear. Their search came up negative, though, Mewtwo eventually saying, "I can't sense her presence at all. It looks like she escaped, for now."

"You have experience fighting her, do you think that she'll survive those wounds?" Samus asked.

"I don't know," Mewtwo answered, shaking his head. "I can't see how, but then again, the Magic Lords are powerful, and she had managed to neutralize her inherent weakness against psychics. I wouldn't put it past her surviving such an injury."

Samus then nodded and relaxed for a moment. The fights against the Pokémon, Cyrus, and Aramon had taken their toll and she wished to catch her breath for a moment. Cyrus refused to give her that chance, though, for once the fight was over, he came up from behind her and launched a Charged Beam from his arm cannon. Samus saw him coming and dove to the ground, causing the blast to sail over her head. As she dove to the ground, Mewtwo returned the earlier favor of her shooting Aramon, preventing the Magic Lord youth from killing or severely injuring him, by shooting a lance of blue energy from his right paw. The lance speared Cyrus in the chest and sent him flying backwards, a massive hole where most of his heart and part of a lung used to be. The beam cauterized the wound, but did Cyrus little good, for without his heart, and part of his left lung, he was doomed to die. He hit the floor of the stage and slid a few feet on it until he came to a halt. Samus then jumped up onto the stage and fired a single uncharged Plasma Beam blast at his head, just to make sure that he was dead, and would stay that way. The beam burned a massive hole in his head, ensuring his demise, if the missing heart and destroyed lung had not already done so first.

After the fighting had finally ended, both Samus and Mewtwo sat down on the stage for a moment to catch their breaths. "It's over," Samus sighed. "It's finally over." And she was right. Regardless of whether or not the Federation in Exile or the so-called Galactic Federation won this battle, the true threat to Earth had been destroyed, for everyone could agree that the Magic Lords were a threat to the entire galaxy. She felt that with Cyrus dead, the two sides could come to some kind of agreement given what she had seen of this war. There was still the issue of war crimes having been committed by members of the Galactic Federation military in various battles during the civil war, but they would likely be dealt with in the courts. Still, there was a very real possibility that now that Cyrus was dead, there was no longer the urgency for the Federation in Exile to retake the planet, since the current threat to the Earth, and the entire universe, was now dead. Evidence and testimonies would tell that Cyrus had been the enemy all along, and while the Galactic Federation Council would not want to give up the power it had recently obtained, she felt that the need for fighting had ended, for a time.

After a few minutes, she rose and headed towards the entrance to the temple, quickly followed by Mewtwo. When they reached the door, they pushed it open and outside, they saw two dozen Cornerian fighters, a dozen Rapiers, a dozen Claymores, six Epées, and two Federation Assault Shuttles with metallic ropes coming from the sides of the craft, hovering over the temple. On the ground stood a company of Galactic Federation Marines and Army Troopers, along with a platoon of Cornerian soldiers, four Ylla warriors, and two N'Kren Technobles, all leveling their weapons at Samus and Mewtwo. The leader of the force, one of the Technobles, walked up towards Samus and demanded, "Samus Aran and unknown creature, in the name of the Galactic Federation and its allies, we command you to surrender now, or die."

Mewtwo merely scoffed, while Samus responded, "I won't surrender. The war is over. Cyrus has been killed and his plans of recreating the universe have been thwarted. We even have one confirmed Magic Lord kill, and another probable."

The N'Kren soldier scoffed. "Like hell you do." Turning to one of the Cornerians, he said, "Go inside the temple and scan it for any traces of foreign energy and signs of Cyrus. If he's dead, we'll have a good reason to charge them with murder and summarily execute them."

"Understood," the Cornerian, a humanoid dog, replied. Samus was about to protest, but a calm Mewtwo shaking his head told her that she should wait before fighting their way out of this. She nodded in agreement, knowing that even as fatigued as he was, Mewtwo would make short work of the forces that were arrayed against them.

Ignoring the bounty hunter and Pokémon in front of him, the Cornerian took a scanner and entered the temple, Mewtwo and Samus allowing him to pass without incident. After entering the temple, he took out his scanner and scanned it. The readings showed signs of a tremendous battle, as did the body on the stage with two holes in it. The Cornerian rushed over to it and ran the scanner over the body. While he had recognized the face as belonging to Cyrus, he wanted to make a positive identification. All scans came back positive. He then went back outside and reported, "Sir, I can confirm that Cyrus was killed inside the temple. There are also many unknown weapons and energy signatures." He handed the scanner over to the Technoble. "The energy signature of the shot to Cyrus's head _does_ match the signatures to the shots that killed Executive of Team Galactic Jupiter and several of the Pokémon present, but does not match the signatures found from the remains of Mars or Venus.

"So we have all of the evidence we need to convict Samus of murder and kill her and this…thing," the Technoble said, motioning towards Mewtwo condescendingly.

The Cornerian was not convinced. "Sir, there were other readings in there that we could not identify."

"We can," one of the Ylla volunteered, coming over. The soldier looked at the readings and his face went white. "I don't believe it," he whispered, as if his mind was someplace else.

"What is it?" the Cornerian asked.

"Those readings are identical to the magical remains of Elvanheim, what you call Magic Lords, along with special Light energy that was utilized by the Luminoth during our war with the Elvanheim. They were here. And at least one of them was killed by a Light weapon."

As if to confirm the killer of the Magic Lord, Samus switched to her Light Beam and charged it. As the Cornerian and the Ylla saw the golden light form at the end of her arm cannon, they took a scan of it. "That's the same energy I detected inside the temple!" he cried. "I also detected that same energy as one of the weapons signatures on Cyrus, and while it was not the fatal shot, several of his scars did show the same weapons signature."

"It does not matter, we have enough information as is," the Technoble blurted. "Samus is guilty of killing Cyrus."

"But this is shows that Cyrus was harmed by the Light Beam!" the Ylla countered.

"In the long run, it means nothing. All human politicians would be either killed or horribly deformed by a Light weapon, even if they had shields up at the time they were hit."

"But it puts the situation in doubt, especially since some were saying that humans _were_ siding with the Magic Lords," the Ylla and Cornerian continued.

"Shut up. My mind is made up!" the N'Kren Technoble roared. Turning to the rest of the force, he commanded, "It's time, everyone, get ready!"

All of the soldiers, save for the Cornerian and the Ylla warriors, who were glancing at one another, and back at their comrade, raised their weapons and targeted Samus. The fighters hovering in the air also readied their weapons. Mewtwo and Samus, however, merely stood by and waited, both smiling knowingly. The discussion had given Mewtwo an opportunity to catch his breath, but even if he had practically been on his last legs, he would have been able to defeat these enemies. The only issue was dealing with the two Technobles, since he could still hear the sounds of fighting off in the distance not too far away from the temple. Extending his psychic senses, he got a good sense of the battle. The rest of the Team Galactic Executives had either been killed or forced to retreat, along with the rest of their troops. The only thing keeping Cynthia and Ethan from getting to the temple were a force of Galactic Federation, N'Kren, and Cornerian soldiers that had already been on Earth when Dane's forces had come to retake the planet. Still, slowly but surely, they were making their way through. They had already reached Wes, Cassandra, and their Pokémon, reviving them and adding the two trainers and their Pokémon to the ranks of the force trying to reach the Sinjoh Ruins, not yet realizing that the battle had already been won.

In the air battle not too far away, Mewtwo also sensed the remains of Star Fox still dogfighting with Star Wolf. Panther Caroso had suffered damage to his Wolfen and had been forced to withdraw due to damage, but not before shooting down Slippy Toad, who managed to safely bail out of his doomed Arwing. As for the others, they were holding their own against each other, for the moment but the damage was beginning to mount for the Arwings. Aside from Panther, who had required both Falco and Slippy to double team him, which cost Slippy his Arwing, and caused Falco to lose a wing and to have to consider withdrawing from the fight since Leon had been all over him, to even force the newest member of Star Wolf to merely withdraw for some repairs before reentering the battle, the rest of Star Wolf was still relatively unscathed. It was clear that the battle was going poorly. And with the Federation in Exile Heavy Assault Shuttles and transports already landing troops to launch an assault on the temple, everyone knew that it would only be a matter of time before the battle was lost. To make matters worse for the Federation, the Federation in Exile atmospheric fighters and starfighters were manhandling their Galactic Federation counterparts, having kill ratios of twelve-to-one, and better. Peppy and the surviving fighters knew that something had to be done quickly, or this battle would be lost. Little did they know, though, that the battle was already lost.

Back at the Sinjoh Ruins temple, Mewtwo and Samus waited for the Federation forces and their allies to open fire on them and bring a swift end to the battle. All he had to do was make sure that the allied forces behind the Federation forces were not harmed. Waving his had, he erected a shield around the entire pass, separating the two forces from one another. Now all that remained was for the Federation to fire on them and destroy themselves via their reflected fire. The Federation forces obliged them as they opened fire on them; red and blue energy bolts and energy-sheathed bullets erupting from their rifles and energy cannons. Missiles also rained down on Mewtwo and Samus. All of the weapons fire was stopped by Mewtwo's reflector shield, which flared blue with each hit, and was sent back to its original source. Missiles and plasma cannon blasts fell among the ranks of the Federation Marines and Army Troopers, gouging massive holes in their ranks, sending bodies flying all over the place. For the N'Kren Technobles, Mewtwo caused their energy projectors to overload and explode, sending the soldiers flying. They hit the ground and skidded a few feet across the surface before coming to a halt. Mewtwo then psychically pried the armor off of the two soldiers, and pressed them to the ground, keeping them out of the fight. The fighters fared no better. Their energy blasts were reflected right back at them, oftentimes right into their cockpits. They promptly fell from the sky and crashed among the ranks of Federation soldiers that were still fighting. As for the shuttles, Mewtwo merely used his psychic abilities to cause them to explode. Just as they exploded, the passengers and crew of the shuttles reappeared in the valley, among the Galactic Federation Troopers, gazing around, wondering how they had arrived in the pass. In less than ten seconds, all of the fighters were destroyed, the Technobles had been stripped of their armor, and there were only a handful of surviving Marines, Army Troopers, and Cornerian soldiers.

Things only got worse for them as they went to retreat, only to find Cynthia, Ethan, Wes, Cassandra, and all of their Pokémon waiting for them. Turning back towards Mewtwo and Samus, they saw the two soldiers approach, with the Ylla warriors and the Cornerian soldier that had confirmed Cyrus's death having joined Samus and Mewtwo in their approach. Once they were a few feet away from the soldiers, they stopped and Samus declared in a loud voice, "The war is over. Lay down your weapons and you will not be harmed. You have our word."

Seeing the power that Mewtwo had demonstrated to them, as well as the fact that Cyrus was now dead, the choice was obvious. They placed their weapons on the ground, kicked them away, and knelt down, placing their hands behind their head, surrendering to the bounty hunter and Mewtwo. It was then that Cynthia and the other Pokémon Trainers had arrived. Not only that, but the two soon heard the roar of a Heavy Assault Shuttle's engines sound above them. The shuttle made its way past the scene and descended off in the distance. She, Mewtwo, and the others ushered the captives in the direction of the shuttle.

Not too far into their walk, they came across General Hastings, wearing a suit of Galactic Federation Marine power armor, escorted by a squad of Galactic Federation in Exile Marines. Following them was the rest of the platoon that had come with them. Once they saw Samus, and Mewtwo, the general went over to her and said, "I take it your mission was successful?"

Samus nodded. "It was, sir. We managed to stop Cyrus from creating his new universe. He was killed during the fighting. As you can see, Mewtwo was also found, managing to return during the battle. We also fought two Magic Lords, with one confirmed kill, and another probable. I'll give you a full report once I can get to my ship and write it up."

"I'll look forward to reading it," the general said jovially, "as will a lot of other people. Along with others who won't be looking forward to reading it," he added in a somber tone, indicating the good soldiers and commanders who had followed along with the Galactic Federation, not knowing about Cyrus's evil intentions or deeds. He directed two Marines to go to the temple, along with Cynthia, and pick up Cyrus's remains. To the others, he said, "Come on," beckoning everyone to come with him to the shuttle "We have a war to end, here."

Up in outer space, the battle for the possession of the Earth continued to be waged. Standing on the bridge of the _G.F.S. Olympus_, Admiral Dane gripped his chair as she ship shook from the impact of an energy beam. A scarlet lance had erupted from an enemy Olympus-class battleship approximately fifty thousand kilometers away. "Forward guns, target that battleship and destroy it!" he cried over the din. Looking out the bridge window, he saw two scarlet lances of energy reach out in the distance. He saw explosions erupt all throughout space as the two fleets had closed to within firing range of each other. The lances continued to fire until he saw another bright flash in the distance come into existence for a brief instant. "Target destroyed," came the voice of Lieutenant Commander Bly.

As soon as the ship had been destroyed, Bly began searching for a new target. Despite the fact that they had been outnumbered more than two-to-one, they had at least been holding their own. Still, casualties had been significant. Only four thousand ships were still in fighting condition, with twelve hundred ships having been destroyed, and eight hundred more having suffered heavy enough damage that they were either dead in space, or crippled. Fortunately, though, most, if not all, of them would be salvageable, assuming the Federation in Exile pulled through and won this fight. In addition to the lost ships, though, thirty Heavy Defense Platforms had been destroyed in the battle, as well as one hundred Medium and Light Defense Platforms, and more than two hundred defense turrets that carried various munitions from laser cannons, plasma cannons, to missile launchers. Still, there were more than eight hundred space defense turrets remaining, as well as several hundred lighter defense platforms. Despite the numerical disadvantage that the Federation in Exile and Earth Defense Fleets had in numbers, they more than made up for it with the abilities of the remaining static defenses, and the current battle was showing as such, for the Federation fleet was down to eight thousand starships. If this continued, while it would be a pyrrhic victory for Earth, its fleet would be able to hold back the current Federation fleet and destroy it, though no one wanted to have to fight for that long.

Once the enemy Olympus-class ship had been destroyed, Bly scanned for another target. She found one in the form of a Unicorn-class destroyer that had opened fire on a Griffin-class frigate. The frigate's shields were holding, for the moment, but they would not last much longer under the withering fire of the destroyer. The destroyer would not fire on it for much longer, though, for the _Olympus_ targeted the destroyer and opened fire with all of its heavy weapons batteries, obliterating the already weakened destroyer in a single volley. Soon after the destroyer had been destroyed, the voice of Lieutenant Gates sounded out over the bridge, saying, "Admiral Dane, sir, I'm picking up a signal from Earth to all starships in the orbit of Earth!"

Hope filled Admiral Dane's heart as he shouted, "Put it on!"

The bridge window was soon filled with the image of Earth President Jonathan Richardson looking somber, yet with also a hint of relief. "All Galactic Federation, Galactic Federation in Exile, and Earth starships, I bring both glad and somber tidings. The somber tidings is that the Galactic Federation Chairman, Cyrus, is dead, along with all of the leaders of Team Galactic. The glad tidings, however, is that he did not manage to accomplish his goals of recreating the universe, as evidenced by the fact that we are still here. This plea goes out to all who participate in this fight. The danger has passed. Please stop fighting and let negotiations begin. Only then can the healing begin."

As President Richardson began to speak on the events that led to the demise of Cyrus of Team Galactic, Admiral Dane sat back in his seat, not paying attention to the speech. They had done it. Against all odds, they had done it. They had defeated Cyrus and stopped his plans, permanently. The threat that he and Team Galactic posed was finally over forever. Now, they could focus on rebuilding the Galactic Federation and putting up a defense against any potential invasion by the Magic Lords, for Dane realized that the Magic Lords were a very dangerous threat. He then told Lieutenant Gates, "Open a channel to the Galactic Federation fleet. Tell them that we wish to end the fighting and begin negotiations."

"Sending the signal, sir," Gates responded, a beep indicating that the signal had been sent.

After a few seconds, the image of the broken bridge of the _G.F.S. Lucifer_ appeared on the _Olympus's_ bridge window. Sparks erupted from one of the consoles in the background and Dane could see the figure of a Simian slumped over one of the consoles, obviously dead. "Well, if it isn't Admiral Dane, come to offer his surrender," Admiral Breaz gloated. This raised a few eyebrows from the bridge crew of the _Olympus_, for given how the battle was going; the Federation would lose unless something drastic happened. Admiral Dane was quick to let Breaz know this.

"Admiral, the Galactic Federation fleet has been horribly bloodied, your bridge is smashed, you're losing your fight against the _G.F.S. Michael_, and given your fleet's losses compared to our own, in both percentage _and_ numbers, you'll lose."

Breaz then cut the channel and opened fire on both the _Olympus_, and the Archangel-class battlecruiser, the _G.F.S. Michael_ that it had been fighting. The _Olympus_ shuddered under the weight of the fire, but its shields managed to absorb the blows and most of the Gehenna-class dreadnaught's remaining firepower was focused on the _Michael_. The _Michael_ defended itself by returning fire, unleashing a volley of energy lances from its cannons. One of its lances drilled through the bridge of the _Lucifer_, vaporizing it and everyone onboard it. Another one, however, drilled through the engineering section, causing a massive core breach, which annihilated the vessel. The _Lucifer_ went up in a magnificent display of fireworks and shrapnel as it exploded, the _Olympus_ not having to fire a singe shot.

Once the ship was destroyed, Dane waited to see what the reaction to the destruction of the _Lucifer_, and the death of Admiral Breaz would be. "Anything?" he asked Gates.

"Yes, sir," she answered. "There's a lot of chatter going on between the fleet."

A few minutes later, Dane got his answer when another image appeared on the screen. The image was of a human male from one of the outlier colonies. He said, "This is Captain Anderson of the _G.F.S. Amaterasu_, an Olympus-class battleship. I have been authorized by the fleet to accept your offer. Power down your weapons, and we'll do the same."

Dane was unconvinced. "You first," he said warily.

Anderson sighed. "Very well, Admiral."

He glanced at Lieutenant Commander Bly, who replied in a surprised, but hopeful tone, "Sir, they're powering down their weapons, and lowering their shields. They're also recalling their surviving starfighters."

"Lower our own shields and power down our weapons and recall our starfighters," Dane directed. "And tell the other ships in the fleet to do the same."

"Understood, sir," came the voices of both Lieutenant Gates and Lieutenant Commander Bly. After that, the fleet powered down its weapons and shields, and recalled its starfighters. Once the fighters had been recalled, the Federation fleet backed off to one million kilometers away from the Federation in Exile fleet and they waited. Dane could only sit back and wait, and hope that the negotiators would be able to negotiate a treaty. It was his hope that the Galactic Federation in Exile would soon be reintegrated into a true Galactic Federation, one that had not existed since the death of former Chairman Keaton.

Meanwhile, in the reaches of space, several hundred lightyears away from Earth, the damaged Space Pirate transport that Weavel had used to evacuate the surviving Space Pirates from Earth emerged from subspace in the void between stars. Sparks flew from the ship as a large part of one of its engines was missing, and the rear half of the ship was exposed to space. The pilot sitting at his station looked back at General Weavel and said, "This is as far as we can go with the damage we've sustained and the power we have left."

"Are there any inhabitable planets nearby?"

The pilot looked down at his sensors and saw something of interest and his head perked up for a bit before he lowered it once more. "What is it?" Weavel asked.

"Sir, there _is_ an inhabitable planet a few lightyears away. However, we don't have enough power for a jump and we don't have any spare parts with which to repair our warp drive," the pilot answered.

"Could we get the necessary power for a jump?" Weavel asked.

"Possibly," the pilot surmised, but we would have to take it from life support, and there's no telling how long we would last without life support. We'd definitely need to lighten our burden. If we could restrict life support to the control cockpit, then we could probably get enough power to make the jump, or at least get us close and let our normal momentum carry us to the planet."

"But the command cockpit isn't large enough to carry Ridley," the copilot blurted. "What will we do about him?"

The general gave a sinister smile. "Sometimes, sacrifices have to be made," he replied, almost with a smirk. "Ridley may have been a valuable leader for the Pirates, but he's not more important than all of us. Tell the others to get up here, now. I'll go back and let Ridley know the situation."

He then went to the back of the transport as the pilot and copilot relayed Weavel's order for the rest of the Pirates to come up to the control cockpit. As he went back, he saw six critically injured Space Pirate Troopers in fully enclosed armor lying near Ridley, who was still bleeding and barely breathing.. My fellow Space Pirates, and our glorious leader, Ridley," Weavel began. This caused Ridley to open his eyes and weakly turn his head towards the general. "During our escape from Earth, this ship was damaged beyond repair. We are now on the run and have used the last of our power, emerging from warp here. In order to gain the power necessary to perform a jump to a planet less than a lightyear away, we'll all the power we can get. Unfortunately, we have to take it from life support." Turning to Ridley, he added, "Oh, and just so you know, we can't afford to have your additional mass while we attempt to land on the inhabitable planet. As such, it is my solemn and sad duty to inform you that you must be expelled from this ship."

Weavel then went over to the wall and pulled a lever. As he did so, a door began to open and air began to rush out. "No, wait! Please stop!" the six wounded Pirates cried, but their cries fell on deaf ears as Weavel watched them, one by one, get pushed into outer space by the rush of air leaving the area. His magnetic boots allowed him to keep his footing. He then neared Ridley, who had dug his claws into the floor of the ship in order to keep himself from being cast into space. Weavel then deployed his energy scythe and prepared to cut off Ridley's lifeline.

"Wait," Ridley said, weakly. "I'm not dead yet."

"Neither were the others," Weavel replied with a smirk. Leaning down, he then continued, "I must say that I never envisioned getting this opportunity to take over the Space Pirates. But for too long, we've had outsiders rule us. Even though you were the organizing force behind us, you were never an Urtragian. Hell, you weren't even a Zebesian style Space Pirate. You were nothing but a Space Dragon, a relic from a time long ago, a member of a slave species. You were a good leader, for a time, but you made one mistake. You let your bloodlust get the better of you and you murdered a girl's parents right in front of her eyes, when you were trying to kill her."

This prompted Ridley to give a weak laugh. "Heh, heh, heh. Don't tell me you wouldn't have done the same," the dragon retorted.

Thinking about it, Weavel replied, "You're right. I would have. I just would have made sure to kill the girl, and then destroy their bodies so that one does not become a bounty hunter whose hobby it is to violate us every week."

Weavel then brought his scythe down on Ridley's right wrist, severing his hand. This caused his body to rise and he struggled to hold on as the air continued to rush out. Weavel then went over to his left wrist, which was also weak due to the damage that Ridley had suffered. "Look at it this way," Weavel called to the dragon, over the artificial windstorm. "You were beyond our ability to save anyway." With that, he performed one more slash, and cut off the Space Dragon's left hand. "Weavelllll!" Ridley croaked as he was blown into space by the rush of air. Once he had been forced off of the ship, the hatch closed and Weavel walked back to the cockpit and directed the ship to get underway. Ridley and the other wounded Space Pirates watched as the single remaining engine on the transport began to glow. After a few seconds, it rocketed off into the distance and disappeared, having jumped to warp. All Ridley could do now was shut down almost all of his biological systems so as to prolong his life for as long as possible, and hope for someone to come and save him, for he knew that Weavel was right. His wounds were fatal, and the Space Pirates did not have the necessary knowledge, or resources, to save him.

Back on Earth, in an abandoned building in the Kanto Region of Japan, an adult male Magic Lord stood, waiting patiently for the return of his daughter. He was tall, more than six feet in height, and had light brown hair and red eyes. He had sensed the disappearance of his daughter, along with her brother's disappearance, a year ago, and he had felt their return when they had emerged from the Warp Zone. He had also felt his son's death, along with the grievous injuries inflicted on his daughter. While he did not have any special love for his children, he knew since they were natural born Magic Lords, that their survival was essential for the continuation of the species. The fact that Aramon was dead, and Aglara had been severely injured was troubling. With less than one hundred adults left, with only four hundred youth and adolescents, the loss of any Magic Lords would be devastating, especially since at least half of the children would die when they reached maturity and started fighting each other to gain power.

A flash of light illuminated the room behind the Magic Lord, followed by a clap, indicating the arrival of Aglara. The adult Magic Lord turned and saw the horribly scarred, one-armed form of his daughter fall to her knees upon arriving. He gasped at the sight. "Aglara, what happened?"

"The legacy of the Chozo, the human bounty hunter, Samus Aran, shot me with a Light Beam, and Mewtwo shattered my right arm," Aglara replied weakly. She slowly crawled to the Magic Lord, clutching her side with her sole remaining arm. She weakly looked up at her father and pleaded, "Father, please help me."

Going over to his daughter, the Magic Lord bent down and looked over her body. He then grabbed her throat and brought her face to his. She gasped for air as he tightened his grip. "Father, what are you doing? I need your help."

"Your wounds are beyond my ability to heal," the Magic Lord replied nonchalantly. "There is nothing I can do to save you."

"But…I've discovered…the secret to neutralizing…our weakness to…psychics," she gasped.

"Then your sacrifice shall not be in vain," the Magic Lord answered as he kissed her lips, and drained her of her remaining life energy. As he absorbed her energy, he also absorbed some of the light energy that was attacking her. Much to the Magic Lord's surprise, the Light did not hurt him nearly as much as he thought it would. While it was painful, the pain was not debilitating and were he to fall under attack, he would be able to fight it off. The pain soon began to subside and he felt a resistance to the Light grow within him. As he continued to drain his daughter her body began to wither, her remaining flesh practically melting off of her body. Sparkles of energy floated off of her body like wisps of gas and after a few more moments, her body collapsed. An unnatural blue flame erupted from her remains and soon, all traces of her body vanished. Once she was dead, the Magic Lord said, "Fear not, Aglara, your sacrifice was not in vain. Thanks to you, I not only have resistance to psychic powers, but also to the Light as well."

After he was finished, he then went to the center of the room and chanted a spell. After the spell was completed, a portal opened and he stepped on through. He needed to inform the rest of his people of his discovery, as well as of the recent events that had just taken place. In his mind, the time was right, and the Earth would never be more vulnerable to attack.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24:

Samus sat at her computer in her new house on Earth in the continent of North America, in the small, rural town of Maryvale. She stared at her computer screen, making the final touches to the report that she would hand in to the new Galactic Federation Chairman, Colin Williams. As she worked, she thought about everything that had happened in the last month that followed the cessation of hostilities between the Galactic Federation and the Galactic Federation in Exile. A great deal had accomplished in that month. First, and most importantly, Earth had been chosen to be the new seat of the Galactic Federation, at least, for the time being. This was cause for some concern among the human population for fear that Earth would have to be developed more, which could lead to more pollution and habitat loss for several species of Pokémon, an at least semi-sentient, possibly fully sentient species on the planet, but with written and verbal assurances from the Federation that Earth would be able to keep the planet in its current balanced state between nature and technology, they accepted.

Next, with the death of Cyrus, a new leader had to be chosen. This was made more difficult since the Speaker of the Council would have been Colin Williams, the President of the Galactic Federation in Exile. Even worse was the fact that many of the leaders in the Galactic Federation Council had been killed during the war, either in raids, or in battle. This forced emergency elections to be held, and while some in the Federation tried to ensure that their allies were elected, others countered them, saying that this type of corruption had led to Earth and several other important worlds seceding from the Federation, a Federation that had just lost a war. Many of the races in the Galactic Federation were still seething with hatred towards humanity, not only out of anger that they had been defeated by what amounted a small resistance group that had a great deal of power in their own corner of the galaxy, but due to the fact that so many of their people would be viewed as criminals and hypocrites.

With the cessation of hostilities, though, Earth and the rest of the Galactic Federation in Exile tentatively rejoined the Galactic Federation so that they could repair much of the damage that had been done; and there was a great deal of damage that had been done. During the war, many Council Members from the numerous smaller colonies had either defected, or were absorbed into their home planets' governments, leaving only one representative on the Council, oftentimes one that supported Cyrus in everything he did. This came back to haunt those governments, since the Federation had lost the war, and had to be brought to the table. Many of these officials had given the entirety of their planetary defense fleets over to Cyrus in his attempt to take over Earth and keep the Federation in Exile from taking it back before he accomplished his objectives.

To make matters even worse was the fact that Samus's logbook records and Combat Visor recordings had shown the whole series of events, from the time she rescued the _Adventure in the Stars_, to her infiltration and destruction of the Orbital Rings, to the final showdown with Cyrus, and later, the two Magic Lords. This data, added to the records that Earth had given to the rest of the Federation Council, had forced everyone to accept that Cyrus was evil, and that he had likely been using Elric just as much as Elric had used him. It did not also help matters that many of the military commanders in the Galactic Federation had committed war crimes and were responsible for the deaths of billions of innocent civilians.

Before any tribunals could get underway, though, emergency elections had to be held. After the elections had been held, Colin Williams, the former Chairman of the Galactic Federation in Exile, had been elected to the tentative position of Chairman of the Galactic Federation in Exile. His stay would be temporary until a more permanent solution could be found.

Once the elections had been done, they went to work on altering the Galactic Federation, making it more like the Galactic Federation of old, rather than the Federation of Elric and Cyrus, and even the Federation of former Chairman Keaton. The Bill of Rights was reinstated, granting people the freedom of speech, religion, the right to keep and bear arms, the freedom of the press, an numerous other freedoms that could not be infringed upon. These rights could also not be overturned by future amendments without unanimous approval by the _entire_ Galactic Federation Council. Term limits were also added to the new Federation Constitution for Galactic Federation Council Members and reinstituted for the Chairman of the Galactic Federation in the hope that the culture of corruption would not spread again and cause a great many people to turn a blind eye to those who abused their power and had allowed people like Elric and Cyrus to rise to power.

Many members of the Galactic Federation, particularly the Star Elves and most of their worlds, did not accept the new Federation Constitution since it was a majority rules, and Earth had a great number of allies in both independent planets and colonies. They, along with the Simians, Lizardians, Nalar, and several other races seceded from the new Galactic Federation, merely calling the current Federation, the Galactic Federation in Exile, merely under a different name. Earth, the Chozo, and Luminoth had responded that they were _right_. It had once the Galactic Federation in Exile because they were ones that had upheld the true founding principles of the original Galactic Federation, and only now had the Galactic Federation finally been restored. The others that remained in the Galactic Federation echoed Earth's sentiments. Still, when all was said and done, more than half of the permanent members, and more than two thirds of the colonies, that had once been a part of the Galactic Federation had seceded. The Federation offered no resistance to their secession, merely wishing them well and hoping that they would prosper, as long as they did not come into conflict with the Federation. Samus shared the same sentiments, but she was a little wary of their sudden secession, feeling that while their excuse of their hatred for humanity and how it now basically ruled the Federation was definitely legitimate, in their eyes, that there was something else; as if they had been thwarted somehow by Earth and the Galactic Federation in Exile. As if to confirm that there was something else going on behind the scenes, those that had seceded almost appeared to be angry that Earth and the others were not trying more forcefully to keep them in the Federation. In addition, many of their worlds had created a pact amongst themselves and were beginning to try to draw non-aligned races into it as well.

She then thought back on her personal report to the new Galactic Federation Council. She had advised them on the threat posed by the Magic Lords. She had gone into great detail about her two fights with the Magic Lords. Old Bird, Gray Voice, and U-Mos had also been present at her depositions, indicating that everything Samus had told the Council was consistent with their own histories with the Magic Lords. Old Bird had also told the Council the other names that the Magic Lords went by: the Elvanheim, their true name, Dragon Lords, Dragon Masters, Dark Gods, and others. The others then told them about their history with the Magic Lords, or Elvanheim, as they called them, letting them know that the Magic Lords had created many species during their war against the Chozo Alliance, most notably the Star Elves, Simians, Nalar, and Lizardians. They had also told them that the beings had been created using humans as the base template for their new slaves and even cannon fodder soldiers. Chairman Williams nodded and told them that the Federation would look into it and be on alert should the Magic Lords return. She could tell in his eyes, though, that he intended to keep an eye on them, as well as an eye on the Star Elf, Simian, Nalar, and Lizardian worlds that had not defected, as well as direct the military leaders to keep a close the officers of those species in the military. Even Samus was suspicious of the species as a whole, though she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that her friends, Kreatz and Mauk, were loyal to the Galactic Federation. This began to make her wonder if, like with Cyrus and the Galactic Federation, it was merely the leadership of those worlds that were most likely to side with the Magic Lords, with the common citizens not having any real affiliation with them. In addition, the Chozo and Luminoth also promised to give the Federation Light Beam technology for their weapons, as well as help the Federation in perfecting its Wave Beam technology, so that they would have a defense against the Magic Lords for when they returned.

She then reflected on what she had read about the outcomes regarding other Federation allies. First off, the N'Kren, with the death of Hi'Gor, Ma'Kar had been placed in charge of the force that had assisted Earth, and his defection to the forces of Earth had not been forgotten. This was especially important upon hearing that Cyrus had been a criminal, and that they had been the traitors all along, they had gone to the Federation to beg forgiveness and were sending ambassadors to the Federation for peace offerings, willing to lend whatever support was necessary against the Magic Lords, should they return, in reparation for the crimes committed under Hi'Gor's command. The N'Kren who survived the fighting that had carried out some of Hi'Gor's more questionable orders, along with some of Cyrus's criminal commands, were also extradited to Earth to stand trial for war crimes. In addition, they did not ask for the head of Samus, who had used a N'Kren emergency teleportation unit to teleport a planet killer bomb onboard their flagship and killing their Fleet Commander Ka'Lok and most of the rest of the N'Kren battle fleet, not to mention several Technobles, nor for the extradition of Rodney and Virginia Aran, who had disabled several Techno Knights and a Technoble, and stood by and watched as Ridley slaughtered them.

The same thing happened with the Ylla, though they had fortunately not been present when many of the war crimes had been committed, thus, they merely gave reparations for damage inflicted and promised the Federation that they would support them against the Magic Lords since they did not have any war criminals to surrender.

Next, she reflected on the Cornerians. They were the ones most heavily affected by the recent turn of events. First off, the Cornerian Army had been humiliated in the battle, having suffered grievous losses in the fighting, greatly weakening their strength against any enemy attackers. To make matters worse, the Star Fox Team had also taken heinous losses, with the _Great Fox II_ having been damaged badly enough that any other military organization would have scuttled the ship, but the Cornerian Army had been forced to repossess and attempt to repair. In addition, all of the personal Arwings of the Star Fox Team had been destroyed, and for their emergency Arwings, Slippy's had been shot down, while Falco's had lost a wing and had been forced to make an emergency landing when his G-Diffuser had been damaged later on in his fight against Leon. In addition, Fox had lost a Landmaster Tank and had been captured by the Galactic Federation in Exile. While he had been released at the cessation of hostilities, it was a grave embarrassment to the team; but the worst had yet to come. When it had been revealed that the Cornerian Army, and the Star Fox Team, had been campaigning for the destruction of the Earth, if not the universe, and had been fighting for an evil regime that may have been even worse than Andross', it had been devastating to the military. The public backlash against them on Corneria had been horrible. The soldiers that had managed to return had been treated horribly by the civilians on world. Many had even decided to resign their commissions, resulting in even more losses for the Cornerian military. Peppy Hare had been forced to resign in disgrace, with General Pepper, who was still recovering from his illness and healing from his Aparoid infection, taking back his position with a greatly depleted military.

The turn of events had been hardest on the Star Fox Team, though. The damage that they had suffered in their equipment losses and in Krystal's desertion had been bad enough; but when it had been revealed that everything that Samus had told Fox was true and that they had, indeed, been fighting for an organization, or rather a commander who was every bit as evil and insane as Andross had been, it had been devastating. Even worse was the loss of trust that the people of Corneria had for the Star Fox Team. Once, they were viewed as great heroes, and while their services were pricey, they had only taken on just missions. Now, they were viewed, wrongfully so, as money-grubbing mercenaries who would turn a blind eye to any evil being perpetrated by their own side if they were being paid enough money. What had really been the gut check for Fox was the revelation that Pigma Dengar had been fighting for Cyrus as well. He had been fighting alongside the person for his father's capture and possible death at the hands of Andross, all in support of an evil man. Another issue, though only in the eyes of the people, was the fact that Fox had taken Peppy back as a member of the Star Fox Team. This did not go over well with many of the civilians and, to them, it looked as if Star Fox had learned nothing from its mistakes during the war. It would take a long time for the Star Fox Team to regain their trust in the eyes of the people. That time would be a problem, though, for there were already reports coming in that strange occurrences were going on around Venom, that Andrew Oikonny was on the move once more; and there was no way that the Federation would ever get involved in an internal Lylatian conflict, especially after the Cornerian Army supported the enemy in the Galactic Federation Civil War. Corneria was on its own.

She then pondered her own experiences in the war. Ironically enough, she had been the one to escape having lost the least. If anything, she had gained a great deal. Not only had she saved the world, and possibly the universe, with some help, of course, she had gotten a tremendous paycheck for her services rendered. First, she had gotten paid for her rescue of the _Adventure in the Stars_, as well as having previously saved the _Crab Cake 1_ and retrieving its essential lost cargo. She had also gotten her normal fee for taking a mission for the Galactic Federation in Exile, plus the bonus for accepting and accomplishing an S-rank mission, as well as getting another large bounty for having driven the Space Pirates off of Earth, practically destroying them in the process. She had yet to confirm the final destruction of the Space Pirates, but given that an engine had been blown off of their escape transport in its escape, plus the fact that only ten Space Pirates, not including General Weavel and Ridley, had escaped, the Federation had considered that the Space Pirate threat was neutralized. She still went around, checking to see if the transport ever popped up anywhere, or if there was any sign of Ridley, but there was hope in her heart that she could finally rest easy, confident that Ridley and the Space Pirates were no more. Still, she had gained a great deal of renown for her actions in the war, even before she infiltrated and destroyed the eight Orbital Rings, came to Earth and practically retook the Radio Tower and Capitol Building on her own, as well as having taken down Cyrus and killed at least one, and likely two, Magic Lords. Right now, Samus had more than enough money to retire for the rest of her life and buy a small moon. The most important thing, in her mind, though, more than the money or fame, or even her other accomplishments, was the fact that she had finally found her parents and had managed to save them from the Space Pirates' brainwashing and reprogramming. They had gone to the hospital and to psychologists for further checkups, but from what everyone could see, her parents were fine and had returned back to normal. A scan from Mewtwo had also confirmed as such when he had met them just after the initial ceasefire. Their survival and return was, by far, her greatest victory ever. Everything else she had done to Ridley, Mother Brain, and the Space Pirate was merely icing on the cake.

After she was finished her reminiscing, she finished her report and clicked _send_ on the screen. Just as she had sent the report, she heard a chime at her door. She rose from her desk and went over to the door. She opened it and her eyes lit up with joy at the sight of her parents standing before her in new civilian clothing. "Mom, Dad, you made it!"

Both parents beamed at her and entered, hugging their daughter. "We couldn't miss seeing you before we got underway with our new jobs."

"And where will you be working?" Samus asked.

"We'll be working for General Space Dynamics, Earth. We'll be helping design new ships and make improvements on older vessels," her father answered. "It's a far cry from running a mining colony, but I think we can handle it."

"I wish both of you the best of luck on your new endeavor," Samus replied, smiling.

"Now, Samus, why don't you tell us how things are going for you and what your plans are," her mother said.

Samus took a seat and motioned for them to sit as well. Her parents sat and she then told them about everything she had done in the last month that was not classified. She answered their questions as best she could, and they did not pry when she could not answer a question due to Earth and/or Federation security reasons. She also went over what she had heard about the other groups that had participated in the fighting. She had quickly told them that the N'Kren were not demanding their extradition for what they had done under the Space Pirates' command. Whether it was because Hi'Gor had followed Cyrus more closely than others, Ridley had been the one to kill the Techno Knights and Hi'Gor, or the simple fact that they had worked for Cyrus, who was no better than the Space Pirates and had sent Rodney and Virginia to Cyrus, who handed them over to the Space Pirates, did not matter to Samus's parents. They were simply glad to be free. Samus then told them about the depositions that she had given to the new Galactic Federation Council, as well as to the Earth Senate, speaking about the Magic Lords at length.

"Do you think they'll launch an attack?" Rodney asked. "Only if you're allowed to talk about it," he added quickly.

"Hard to say," Samus answered. "And yes, I am allowed to talk about the Magic Lords," she assured them. "According to the Chozo, the Magic Lords are likely very small in number, mostly due to their War Against the PSI Aliens. They had since recovered from their loss to the Chozo Alliance. However, they pushed most of their species into the creation of an entity known as the Dark Dragon, which vanished mysteriously without a trace in the Earth's mid twenty-first century. Given the fact that they have not launched an overt attack and have tried to be as covert as possible, using intermediaries and basically ordering Elric around in the latter parts of his reign without engaging in combat until absolutely necessary, my guess is that they are still an endangered species and that any significant loss could be disastrous for them."

"So chances are that they won't launch an attack anytime soon, at least not overtly," Virginia surmised.

"That's likely the case," Samus answered, nodding. "However, this can merely make them all that much more dangerous, for they were able to get to Elric and have him do their bidding. They could be making further plans as we speak."

Rodney then asked, "Do you think that these…Arceus is it…?"

Samus nodded.

"…Arceus trophies could have been part of their plans?"

Samus shook her head. "No, I don't think so; at least, not from what I know of the Magic Lords. First of all, from what Old Bird, Gray Voice, and U-Mos have said, this is not their standard M.O. They tend to order things to happen and have never been shown to use trophies as weapons. These trophies were also not random. From what I've read recently about Legendary Pokémon, these trophies copied the powers of Arceus perfectly, in form if not in raw power. The only difference was that these Arceus were likely of the Normal type, likely because they did not have a special type of plate equipped to them."

"So who do you think made these trophies, and why do you think they handed them to Cyrus?" her mother asked.

"I don't know," she answered. "But I have a feeling that whoever made these trophies may be even more dangerous, and powerful, than the Magic Lords. From what I've seen, the Magic Lords are very haughty and that is something that someone who is on or close to their level can take advantage of in order to secure a win. The same can't necessarily be said about the force behind the trophies."

The three then sat and thought about things for a moment. "The troubles aren't over yet, are they," her father asked.

"I doubt it," Samus answered. "But for now, we have a reprieve. We've won a major victory: the Arceus Trophies have been destroyed, Cyrus's plan to create a new universe was thwarted with him being killed in the fighting, at least one Magic Lord is dead, possibly two, and the Galactic Federation has been restored, and restored to its roots. I would say that this qualifies as a major victory."

"Here here," both of her parents replied in a celebratory tone. The family then sat and caught up on the more than two decades they had been apart.

Meanwhile, in a realm outside of the Nintendo Universe, the Magic Lord War Council sat inside their palace to discuss the recent events that had unfolded in Milky Way, most notably, the death of two of their own kind. With less than one hundred full-grown adults, and only four hundred youth and adolescents remaining, at least half of them being clones, they knew the dangers of having two of their most promising natural born members killed. Eleven Magic Lords, the strongest of their kind, save for the absent member, who was currently away on assignment, sat around the center of the table. The Lords that sat around the table were both male and female, as well as having a variety of skin, hair and eye color depending on their whims. They also wore a variety of armor types and carried various types of swords ranging from shorts swords, to broadswords, to long swords, each made from a different type of metal. A bowl at the center of the table soon it and a wall of light reached up to the ceiling. An image appeared in the center of the bowl. The image soon turned into the holographic figure of the twelfth member of the council. This Magic Lord had light brown hair and red eyes. In the background, there were wooden crates, each with writing in English, the most highly spoken, and official, language of Earth, on them.

"Aizen," one of the Magic Lords, a male with blond hair and green eyes began. "What is your report?"

"My fellow War Council members, I have both exhilarating news and troubling news. First for the troubling news: my two children were killed by a human bounty hunter, Samus Aran, and Mewtwo."

"Yes," said another Magic Lord. "We sensed their passing. What concern is it of ours?"

"They were Magic Lords!" Aizen retorted. "Their power did not pass to anyone else of our kind, meaning that they were not killed by fellow Magic Lords! That makes it a grave concern. Two Earth creatures managed to kill them! Earth creatures!" he roared. He took a few moments to catch his breath before continuing, "However, this also brings up the exhilarating news. The Galactic Federation, while it had re-formed and returned as a far less corrupt political entity than it had been when our servant, Elric, had infiltrated it and later taken control, it suffered tremendous fleet and personnel losses during its civil war, particularly the planetary military forces that had been absorbed into Cyrus's military for his assault and conquest of Earth. Earth also had its defenses noticeably weakened. Now is the perfect time to strike. With your help, I can kill Samus, this Mewtwo, the Chosen Pikachu, and the Chosen Pokémon Masters and rid the galaxy of some of the greatest threats to our existence since the PSI Aliens and even the Chosen Four!"

"But the threats of the Mario Brothers, Link, Kirby, Meta Knight, the Fire Emblem Lords, and others," countered another one. "Earth is not the greatest of our threats. Hylia is. And even if we eliminate Earth, the Galactic Federation and the Chozo Alliance are both still out there. Earth is but one planet."

"But Earth can become a significant threat, especially if the Chosen Four ever return," Aizen retorted. "We have an opportunity to eliminate a great number of threats to us by destroying Earth and killing them now. If we sit here and do nothing, then you will regret it."

"If you feel so strongly about Earth's threat, and the threat posed by Mewtwo, Samus, and the others, then deal with them yourself," the first Magic Lord declared. "We have other things to worry about."

Aizen gritted his teeth. "Very well, I will," he seethed. "But if I fail, know this. It will be to your sorrow. Earth is weakened, but it is not weak, nor is it stupid. They will not dismiss what the Chozo have to say about our existence as out of hand. They will listen. The Federation will listen. If we strike at Earth now, we have a much better chance at infiltrating the Federation. Earth was the reason we failed. Without Earth, the Federation will be malleable. We will be able to direct it without having to directly intervene."

"We understand," the Lords replied. "But we still have other issues that must be dealt with. If you wish to strike at Earth and its defenders, you will do it alone."

Aizen grimaced and then left them with this final warning, "The time will come when you will regret not helping me deal with Earth. And it will come sooner than you think." With that, the image of Aizen vanished.

"Will we regret not helping him?" one of the Magic Lords asked, the concern in his voice quite evident.

"We cannot afford to deal with Earth at the moment. We still have to make the final plans for the creation of a new Dark Dragon," another answered. The rest of the Council echoed the sentiment.

"I still think that we are taking a tremendous risk by not dealing with Earth," the first said a little more forcefully. "Even though the Chosen Four have yet to return, if they do, it will spell trouble. Aizen's survival is critical to our plans, though, for the new Dark Dragon we plan to create will be significantly weaker than the one the Chosen Four dealt with in the mid-twenty-first century. Aizen was trying to find a way to neutralize our crippling weakness to psychic powers and the Light. If we were able to find a way to do so, it would allow for this new Dark Dragon to become strong enough to destroy our enemies. If not, though, then even this Mewtwo, along with help from a few other strong enemies, would be enough to destroy the Dragon. Our slave races share our weakness, and the only others that might be willing to join us, Weavel and the few Space Pirate survivors, are nowhere near strong enough to destroy any of the stronger Chosen Heroes. It is even debatable if some of the weaker Chosen Heroes would be able to defeat him and his handful of Pirate survivors."

"Yes. But right now, we must focus on dealing with our enemies as we find them," the second answered. "While we should consider recruiting General Weavel and the Pirates that crashed on Kandar, she should hold off doing such for the time being. We are Magic Lords! We have the power to eliminate any single enemy that might come against us. With the power of the Dark Dragon, we will be able to eliminate all that stand in our way."

A third then declared, "There is nothing that can stop us. We are the ultimate power in the multiverse now that the PSI Lords and Giygas have been destroyed. While there are powerful forces all throughout the multiverse, they shall be dealt with soon and we shall reign unopposed!"

This declaration served to convince the first Magic Lord that he was merely worrying about nothing. Once the third Magic Lord had finished his proud declaration, the entire group rose and gave a cheer. Little did they know that their position in the multiverse was actually quite precarious and that there were enemies other than the Nintendo Heroes that had their sights set on them.

Meanwhile, in the void between the stars, Ridley and six critically injured Urtragian Space Pirate Troopers drifted through space. The septet had been lost in space for what seemed to be an eternity, though in reality, it had only been for about a month. Ridley had shut down most of his bodily systems, so as to conserve energy and to try to prolong his life. He was now running on the last bit of energy he had, his already damaged body beginning to shut down, both due to the injuries that he had sustained in his battle against Samus, and due to the lack of nutrition. Floating beside him were the six injured Space Pirate Troopers. Each of their suits had been modified with a stasis unit that had activated as soon as they had entered outer space. While it had not slowed down time entirely, it had done so enough so that they could enter a state of hibernation and hope to survive for as long as possible before they either succumbed to their wounds, or their stasis units gave out and they died due to both their injuries and starvation.

The six Pirates and the Space Dragon did not notice the purple explosion erupt in the void a few kilometers away. However, whatever had caused the explosion had certainly detected them, for an invisible force was drawing the seven closer to the explosion. It took ten minutes for the seven to move close to the explosion, which was large enough to hold an Olympus-class battleship. Once they were close enough, a deep masculine voice echoed through Ridley's head, awakening him, booming, "Greetings Ridley."

Ridley's eyes immediately opened and he feebly turned his head, searching for the source of the voice. "Who said that?" he croaked. Much to his surprise, though, while he was very much aware of his injuries, he did not feel his life slipping from him as he had until he heard the voice greet him."

"I am Master Hand," the voice replied calmly.

"Where are you?" Ridley asked in a strained voice. When no answer was forthcoming, he demanded, "Show yourself."

His head was then drawn to the large, round, purple explosion. His eyes went wide with wonder at the energy contained inside the explosion. Looking more closely, he found that the explosion was not really an explosion, but a portal, for he saw various figures inside the globe. They looked to be wearing green uniforms and had purple and black beads emerging from them like exhaust from a vehicle. In the center of the globe, he saw a faint flicker approach. The flicker grew in size until it was large enough for Ridley to identify as a white gloved hand. He looked to see what the hand was connected to but there was no limb. It was just the hand. The hand approached Ridley, growing in size until it was merely a few dozen meters away. "Welcome, Lord Ridley," the hand said, his voice echoing through Ridley's mind.

"Are you Master Hand?" Ridley asked.

"I am," the hand answered.

"Then state your business," Ridley demanded, though he was still weak and it came out as barely a croak.

"I have brought you and the surviving Space Pirates here for an important purpose."

"You've got guts summoning someone like me," Ridley commented. "Most of those that do don't live very long if I reject them."

"You are in no position to reject the offer I have for you," Master Hand said matter-of-factly.

Ridley growled. "We'll see about that," he proclaimed as loudly as his weakened voice would allow as he tried to power a blast of plasma, only to find that he was unable to do so.

"Don't let the fact that you don't feel like you're dying confuse you, Ridley," the hand told him. "There are forces at work that are keeping you alive, and in your current condition right now that are beyond your comprehension. Suffice to say, if I release you, you will be left to float in space until you die…and die you shall."

Ridley gave a humph. "What do you want?"

"I want you to join my army; the Subspace Army," Master Hand replied.

"Subspace Army?" Ridley asked, almost as if he were about to break out into a fit of laughter.

"Yes," Master Hand answered. "We have a large number of disposable troops for battle, but we lack generals to lead them. So far, we only have one general; the top general, subordinate only to me."

"Then why do you need me?" Ridley asked.

"Because we need _more_ generals, particularly field generals," Master Hand answered. "We need generals that can fight and have a good track record against their opponents. Of all of the candidates that we are looking into, you have some of the best credentials. You have achieved victories against your enemy, the Galactic Federation…"

"Marred by disastrous defeats at the hands of Samus Aran," Ridley scoffed. "Really, why me?"

"For the reasons that I have already stated," Master Hand answered. "Why are you so resistant to my offer?"

"What offer?" Ridley demanded. "All you've said is that you've chosen me to become a general in _your_ army. I've worked as an underling before and it has _never_ ended well for me."

"Precisely why we want you," Master Hand answered. "You know how to command troops, and are a strong fighter. If you join us, you'll be able to command these troops in battle."

"What would I do should I join your army?" Ridley asked.

"Precisely what you would expect," came the hand's answer. "You would be a general commanding our forces in battle against our enemies."

"And who are your enemies?"

"The great heroes," Master Hand answered. "Among them are Mario Mario, Luigi Mario, Link, Samus Aran, and others." The hand knew that he had Ridley at the mention of Samus, or at least he thought he did. Ridley had other ideas.

"Why should I join? What's in it for me?" he demanded.

"We will repair your current body and enhance it," the hand answered. "And you will be given new troops to command. We will also save your comrades floating beside you and create a new army of Space Pirates that _you_ will command, under our auspices. In addition, you will be able to get your revenge against Samus Aran, who has so recently humiliated you and inflicted such horrible pain upon your body. While you will also be called to deal with other opponents, we will give you one final crack at Samus as well as a bonus, one way or another."

Ridley grinned and thought over Master Hand's offer. He wanted to confirm what the hand said and asked, "I will be given a chance to kill Samus?"

"Yes," came Master Hand's answer. "What is your decision?"

"I accept," Ridley answered. With that, the Space Dragon, along with the six other gravely wounded Space Pirates were drawn into the portal. Once they had entered, the portal closed, leaving no trace of them.

A couple hours later, on Smash World innumerable lightyears away from Earth, Master Hand, a large white gloved hand that was large enough to grab and engulf a human floated and watched as four Primids, dark skinned beings with dark purple blobs of energy leaking from them, wearing green uniforms and hats, hauled Ridley into a revival chamber. He knew that the damage done to the Space Dragon would be too great for the chamber to heal completely, but he had other ways to not only heal Ridley, but also improve on him in ways that even the Space Pirates could not imagine. A line of Primids then came along carrying the six wounded Space Pirates. Master Hand directed the Primids, "Place the Space Pirates into revival chambers and wait for them to be restored. Once they're restored, we'll begin cloning them to build some more cannon fodder troops."

The Primids nodded and went about their task. As they were going about their task, a green-robed figure with glowing red eyes came up to Master Hand from behind. "You wished to see me, Master?" the figure asked.

Turning around, Master Hand saw the Ancient One approach. The Ancient One was a ROB, a gray robot that looked like a toy, but was actually quite formidable. This particular ROB was once of the Ancients hailing from the floating Island of the Ancients. When Tabuu had attacked, he had cast his lot in with Tabuu, along with the Ancient Minister. Unlike the Ancient Minister, though, he had been loyal to Tabuu during the Subspace War, even after the Trophies had defeated Tabuu's probe. However, after the Ancient Minister's betrayal, the Ancient One had ascended to the rank of Ancient Minister and had been instrumental in helping Tabuu get his revenge on the Trophies without revealing his true power. The Ancient One was a very useful lieutenant for the Subspace Army. "Yes," Master Hand said in reply to the Ancient One's question. "What is your report?"

"First off, Ganondorf is heading through the time portal to bring Porky Minch to the Island of the Ancients. Second, I have overseen a meeting that the Magic Lords had with each other. They are highly concerned about the recent turn of events regarding the deaths of two natural born Magic Lord adolescents at the hands of Samus Aran and a Pokémon named Mewtwo." He then paused before continuing, "If I remember correctly, there was a Mewtwo Trophy in Smash World, but it was destroyed before the first Subspace War."

"That is correct."

"Well, based on that lost Trophy, there should be no way that Mewtwo should have been able to defeat a Magic Lord, much less those two Arceus Trophies that you gave Cyrus."

"You of all people should know that the Trophies were merely based off of the heroes, not the other way around," Master Hand chided. "Make no mistake, the real heroes are far stronger than their Trophy counterparts."

"I see," the Ancient One said. "Will that be all?"

"No," Master Hand answered. "There is one more thing I need of you."

"What is it?"

"I am setting up a Super Smash Brothers competition for all heroes that have proven their worth. Once the Chosen Four arrive, I will have Ganondorf send an invitation to them. However, there are others who have proven their worth as heroes already. One such hero is Samus Aran, the one who defeated Cyrus and has all but annihilated the Space Pirates. I want you to send her an invitation to the Super Smash Bros. tournament."

"It shall be done," the Ancient One said. He then bowed before Master Hand and turned to leave. As he was leaving, Master Hand called back, "One more thing."

"What is it?" the Ancient One asked.

"How is the restoration of Andross coming?"

"It is coming along nicely, but his temperament is still terrible. He is constantly demanding to be allowed back to Lylat. Why do you ask?"

"I think that we should acquiesce to his demands and send him back," Master Hand answered.

The Ancient One's eyes went wide, or as wide as a robot's eyes could go. "Are you serious?"

"Yes," the hand answered. "We need to have a foothold of some sort in the Milky Way galaxy."

"But why now?" the Ancient One almost demanded. "The Lylat system is in shambles after a large portion of the Cornerian fleet was sent to Cyrus, and later destroyed. The Star Fox Team has been decimated, with numerous fighter losses, an all but dead mothership, and one of its team members leaving. We could probably take over, ourselves."

"But then that would reveal us to the Federation," Master Hand answered. "If we send Andross, he can take over Lylat and allow us a beachhead where we can amass troops and launch our eventual attack on the Federation, and Milky Way." _And to give the Star Fox Team a chance to redeem themselves and force Corneria to call upon them once more_, Master Hand thought to himself.

"I see," the Ancient one said, conceding to Master Hand's wisdom. "It shall be done."

"Good," the hand answered.

With that, the Ancient One bowed and departed. Once he had departed, Master Hand looked back at Ridley and shook in disgust. He had studied Ridley's history and hated the very thought of working with him. However, Tabuu had demanded that Ridley be a Subspace Army general, and Master Hand could not refuse his master. He only hoped and prayed that Samus and the others, combined, would be powerful enough to take down Tabuu, freeing him from the Subspace Emissary's control. He then thought about the prospect of Samus killing the Space Dragon once and for all and would have grinned if he had a face. He then left the scene and prepared for the arrival of Porky Minch, as well as the expected arrival of the Chosen Four.

Back on Earth, a few days later, it was a hot summer afternoon. Samus walked out of her house and went over to her mailbox. While paper mail was increasingly rare, some important documents were still sent by regular mail. Opening the mailbox, she reached in and found that she only had one letter. She pulled it out, closed the box, and went back inside, not wanting to stay out in the blistering heat for too long.

Once she was inside, she opened the letter and read it. It read:

_Dear Samus Aran:_

_Your daring exploits and feats have not gone unnoticed throughout the universe. As a result of your tremendous feats of saving the Earth, and the galaxy, time and time again, you are cordially invited to participate in the first ever Super Smash Bros. Competition that will begin starting in May year. The Super Smash Bros. Competition is where the greatest of heroes from all around the multiverse assemble to see just who among the best is the best. There are many competitions ranging from fighting, to breaking the targets, to homerun contests, to stamina matches, and more. There is an attached pamphlet to further explain the various contests you may partake in in the Super Smash Bros. competition, as well as a return envelope for you to mail your response in. Please send us your response by the thirty-first of December of this year if you plan to attend. Should you wish to attend, we will mail you all the information regarding the location of the competition. Should you wish to attend, your family will be automatically allowed to attend the competition as spectators. We hope that you will attend this prestigious event and bring your skills to this challenging competition._

_ from,_

_ The Super Smash Stadium_

Samus folded the letter and reached into the envelope. Inside, she found the pamphlet that was attached to the letter. She then sat down to read about the various events that were taking place at the competition. After reading it through, she placed the pamphlet and letter on the table next to her chair. She would have to think about whether or not she would attend, but she had a good deal of time before the deadline. However, she had a feeling that if something did not come up, that she would definitely attend. Testing her mettle against other great heroes sounded very appealing to her.


End file.
